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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of the Rise, Progress and
+Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the
+British Parliament (1839), by Thomas Clarkson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the
+Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839)
+
+Author: Thomas Clarkson
+
+Release Date: May 16, 2007 [EBook #10633]
+[This file was first posted on January 8, 2004]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ABOLITION OF SLAVE-TRADE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Carlo Traverso, Amy Overmyer, and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders from images generously made available by the Bibliotheque
+nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE ABOLITION
+OF THE SLAVE-TRADE, BY THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT
+
+BY THOMAS CLARKSON, M.A.
+
+1839
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Thomas Clarkson]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM, LORD GRENVILLE,
+
+THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES, EARL GREY,
+
+THE RIGHT HONOURABLE FRANCIS, EARL MOIRA,
+
+THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GEORGE JOHN, EARL SPENCER,
+
+THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY RICHARD, LORD HOLLAND,
+
+THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THOMAS, LORD ERSKINE,
+
+THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EDWARD, LORD ELLENBOROUGH,
+
+THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD HENRY PETTY,
+
+THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THOMAS GRENVILLE,
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NINE OUT OF TWELVE OF HIS MAJESTY'S LATE CABINET MINISTERS,
+
+TO WHOSE WISE AND VIRTUOUS ADMINISTRATION BELONGS
+
+THE UNPARALLELED AND ETERNAL GLORY
+
+OF THE ANNIHILATION,
+
+AS FAR AS THEIR POWER EXTENDED,
+
+OF ONE OF THE GREATEST SOURCES OF CRIMES AND SUFFERINGS,
+
+EVER RECORDED IN THE ANNALS OF MANKIND;
+
+AND TO THE MEMORIES OF
+
+THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM PITT,
+
+AND OF
+
+THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES JAMES FOX,
+
+UNDER WHOSE FOSTERING INFLUENCE
+
+THE GREAT WORK WAS BEGUN AND PROMOTED;
+
+THIS HISTORY
+
+OF
+
+THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE
+TRADE,
+
+IS RESPECTFULLY AND GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+    PREFATORY REMARKS ON THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
+
+    CHAPTER I Introduction.--Estimate of the evil of the Slave
+    Trade; and of the blessing of the Abolition of it.--Usefulness
+    of the contemplation of this subject
+
+
+    CHAPTER II Those, who favoured the cause of the Africans
+    previously to 1787, were so many necessary forerunners in
+    it.--Cardinal Ximenes; and others
+
+
+    CHAPTER III Forerunners continued to 1787; divided now into four
+    classes.--First consists of persons in England of various
+    descriptions, Godwyn, Baxter, and others
+
+
+    CHAPTER IV Second, of the Quakers in England, George Fox, and
+    his religious descendants
+
+
+    CHAPTER V Third, of the Quakers in America.--Union of these with
+    individuals of other religious denominations in the same cause
+
+
+    CHAPTER VI Facility of junction between the members of these
+    three different classes
+
+
+    CHAPTER VII Fourth, consists of Dr. Peckard; then of the
+    Author.--Author wishes to embark in the cause; falls in with
+    several of the members of these classes
+
+
+    CHAPTER VIII Fourth class continued; Langton, Baker, and
+    others.--Author now embarks in the cause as a business of his
+    life
+
+
+    CHAPTER IX Fourth class continued; Sheldon, Mackworth, and
+    others.--Author seeks for further information on the subject;
+    and visits Members of Parliament
+
+
+    CHAPTER X Fourth class continued.--Author enlarges his
+    knowledge.--Meeting at Mr. Wilberforce's.--Remarkable junction
+    of all the four classes, and a Committee formed out of them, in
+    May, 1787, for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
+
+
+    CHAPTER XI History of the preceding classes, and of their
+    junction, shown by means of a map.
+
+
+    CHAPTER XII Author endeavours to do away the charge of
+    ostentation in consequence of becoming so conspicuous in this
+    work.
+
+
+    CHAPTER XIII Proceedings of the Committee; Emancipation declared
+    to be no part of its object.--Wrongs of Africa by Mr. Roscoe.
+
+
+    CHAPTER XIV Author visits Bristol to collect
+    information.--Ill-usage of seamen in the Slave Trade.--Articles
+    of African produce.--Massacre at Calabar.
+
+
+    CHAPTER XV Mode of procuring and paying seamen in that trade;
+    their mortality in it.--Construction and admeasurement of
+    slave-ships.--Difficulty of procuring evidence.--Cases of
+    Gardiner and Arnold.
+
+
+    CHAPTER XVI Author meets with Alexander Falconbridge; visits
+    ill-treated and disabled seamen; takes a mate out of one of the
+    slave-vessels, and puts another in prison for murder.
+
+
+    CHAPTER XVII Visits Liverpool.--Specimens of African
+    produce.--Dock duties.--Iron instruments used in the
+    traffic.--His introduction to Mr. Norris.
+
+
+    CHAPTER XVIII Manner of procuring and paying seamen at Liverpool
+    in the Slave Trade; their treatment and mortality.--Murder of
+    Peter Green.--Dangerous situation of the Author in consequence
+    of his inquiries.
+
+
+    CHAPTER XIX Author proceeds to Manchester; delivers a discourse
+    there on the subject of the Slave Trade.--Revisits Bristol; new
+    and difficult situation there; suddenly crosses the Severn at
+    night.--Returns to London.
+
+
+    CHAPTER XX Labours of the Committee during the Author's
+    journey.--Mr. Sharp elected chairman.--Seal engraved.--Letters
+    from different correspondents to the Committee.
+
+
+    CHAPTER XXI Further labours of the Committee to February,
+    1788.--List of new Correspondents.
+
+
+    CHAPTER XXII Progress of the cause to the middle of
+    May.--Petitions to Parliament.--Author's interviews with Mr.
+    Pitt and Mr. Grenville.--Privy Council inquire into the subject;
+    examine Liverpool delegates.--Proceedings of the Committee for
+    the Abolition.--Motion and Debate in the House of Commons;
+    discussion of the general question postponed to the next
+    Session.
+
+
+    CHAPTER XXIII Progress to the middle of July.--Bill to diminish
+    the horrors of the Middle Passage; Evidence examined against it;
+    Debates; Bill passed through both Houses.--Proceedings of the
+    Committee, and effects of them.
+
+
+    CHAPTER XXIV Continuation from June, 1788, to July,
+    1789.--Author travels in search of fresh evidence.--Privy
+    Council resume their examinations; prepare their
+    report.--Proceedings of the Committee for the Abolition; and of
+    the Planters and others.--Privy Council report laid on the table
+    of the House of Commons; debate upon it.--Twelve
+    propositions.--Opponents refuse to argue from the report;
+    examine new evidence of their own in the House of
+    Commons.--Renewal of the Middle Passage Bill.--Death and
+    character of Ramsay.
+
+
+    CHAPTER XXV Continuation from July, 1789, to July, 1790.--Author
+    travels to Paris to promote the abolition in France; his
+    proceedings there; returns to England.--Examination of
+    opponents' evidence resumed in the Commons.--Author travels in
+    quest of new evidence on the side of the Abolition; this, after
+    great opposition, introduced.--Renewal of the Middle Passage
+    Bill.--Section of the slave-ship.--Cowper's _Negro's
+    Complaint_.--Wedgewood's Cameos.
+
+
+    CHAPTER XXVI Continuation from July, 1790, to July,
+    1791.--Author travels again.--Examinations on the side of the
+    Abolition resumed in the Commons; list of those examined.--Cruel
+    circumstances of the times.--Motion for the Abolition of the
+    Trade; debates; motion lost.--Resolutions of the
+    Committee.--Sierra Leone Company established.
+
+
+    CHAPTER XXVII Continuation from July, 1791, to July,
+    1792.--Author travels again.--People begin to leave off sugar;
+    petition Parliament.--Motion renewed in the Commons; debates;
+    abolition resolved upon, but not to commence till 1796.--The
+    Lords determine upon hearing evidence on the resolution; this
+    evidence introduced; further hearing of it postponed to the next
+    Session
+
+
+    CHAPTER XXVIII Continuation from July, 1792, to July,
+    1793.--Author travels again.--Motion to renew the Resolution of
+    the last year in the Commons; motion lost.--New motion to
+    abolish the foreign Slave Trade; motion lost.--Proceeding of the
+    Lords
+
+
+    CHAPTER XXIX Continuation from July, 1793, to July,
+    1794.--Author travels again.--Motion to abolish the foreign
+    Slave Trade renewed, and carried; but lost in the Lords; further
+    proceedings there.--Author, on account of declining health,
+    obliged to retire from the cause
+
+
+    CHAPTER XXX Continuation from July, 1794, to July,
+    1799.--Various motions within this period
+
+
+    CHAPTER XXXI Continuation from July, 1799, to July,
+    1805.--Various motions within this period
+
+
+    CHAPTER XXXII Continuation from July, 1805, to July,
+    1806.--Author, restored, joins the Committee again.--Death of
+    Mr. Pitt.--Foreign Slave Trade abolished.--Resolution to take
+    measures for the total abolition of the trade.--Address to the
+    King to negotiate with foreign powers for their concurrence in
+    it.--Motion to prevent new vessels going into the trade.--All
+    these carried through both Houses of Parliament
+
+
+    CHAPTER XXXIII Continuation from July, 1806, to July,
+    1807.--Death of Mr. Fox.--Bill for the total abolition carried
+    in the Lords; sent from thence to the Commons; amended, and
+    passed there, and sent back to the Lords; receives the royal
+    assent.--Reflections on this great event
+
+
+    Map
+
+
+    Plan and Sections of a Slave Ship
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+PREFATORY REMARKS
+
+TO
+
+THE PRESENT EDITION.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+The invaluable services rendered by Thomas Clarkson to the great
+question of the Slave Trade in all its branches, have been universally
+acknowledged both at home and abroad, and have gained him a high place
+among the greatest benefactors of mankind. The History of the Abolition
+which this volume contains, affords some means of appreciating the
+extent of his sacrifices and his labours in this cause. But after these,
+with the unwearied exertions of William Wilberforce, had conducted its
+friends to their final triumph, in 1807, they did not then rest from
+their labours. There remained four most important objects, to which the
+anxious attention of all Abolitionists was now directed.
+
+_First_,--The law had been passed, forced upon the Planters, the
+Traders, and the Parliament, by the voice of the people; and there was a
+necessity for keeping a watchful eye over its execution.
+
+_Secondly_,--The statute, however rigorously it might be enforced, left,
+of course, the whole amount of the Foreign Slave traffic untouched, and
+it was infinitely to be desired that means should be adopted for
+extending our Abolition to other nations.
+
+_Thirdly_,--Some compensation was due to Africa, for the countless
+miseries which our criminal conduct had for ages inflicted upon her, and
+strict justice, to say nothing of common humanity and Christian charity,
+demanded that every means should be used for aiding in the progress of
+her civilization, and effacing as far as possible the dreadful marks
+which had been left upon her by our crimes.
+
+_Lastly,_--Many of those whom we had transported by fraud and violence
+from their native country, and still more of the descendants of others
+who had fallen a sacrifice to our cruelties, and perished in the course
+of nature, slaves in a foreign land, remained to suffer the dreadful
+evils of West India bondage. It seemed to follow, that the earliest
+opportunity consistent with their own condition, should be taken to free
+those unhappy beings, the victims of our sordid cruelty; and all the
+more to be pitied, as we were all the more to be blamed, because one
+result of our transgression was the having placed them in so unnatural a
+position, that their enemies might seem to be furnished with an argument
+more plausible than sound, drawn from the Negro's supposed unfitness for
+immediate emancipation.
+
+In order to promote these four great objects, a society was formed in
+May 1807, called the African Institution, and although, at first, its
+labours were chiefly directed to the portion of the subject relating to
+Africa, by degrees, as the extinction of the British Slave Trade was
+accomplished, its care was chiefly bestowed on West India matters, which
+were more within the power of this country than the slave traffic, still
+carried on by foreign nations. But it is necessary in the first place,
+to recite the measures by which our own share in that enormous crime was
+surrendered, and the stigma partially obliterated, which it had brought
+upon our national character, Thomas Clarkson bore a forward and
+important part in all these useful and virtuous proceedings. His health
+was now, by rest among the Lakes of Westmoreland for several years,
+comparatively restored and his mind once more bent itself to the
+accomplishment of the grand object; of his life, we may he permitted
+reverently to suggest, the end of his existence.
+
+Mr. Stephen and others, at first, deemed the certainty of the Act passed
+in March 1807, being evaded under the stimulus, and the insurance
+against capture afforded by the enormous profits of the traffic, so
+clear, that they expected the law to become, almost from the time of its
+being enacted, a dead letter. There soon appeared the strongest reasons
+to concur in this opinion, the result of long and close observation in
+the Islands where Mr. Stephen had passed part of his life. The
+slave-dealers knew the risk of penalty and forfeiture which they ran;
+but they also knew that if one voyage in three or four was successful,
+they were abundantly remunerated for all their losses; and, therefore,
+they were no more restrained by the Abolition Act, than by any moderate
+increase of the cost or the risk attending their wicked adventures. This
+was sure, to be the case, as long as the law only treated slavetrading
+as a contraband commerce, subjecting those who drove it to nothing but
+pecuniary penalties. But it was equally evident that the same persons
+who made these calculations of profit and risk, while they only could
+lose the ship or the money by a seizure, would hesitate before they
+encountered the hazard of being tried as for a crime. And, surely, if
+ever these was an act which deserved to be declared felony, and dealt
+with as such, it was this of slave-trading. Accordingly, in 1810, Mr.
+Brougham, then a member of the House of Commons, in moving an address to
+the crown, (which was unanimously agreed to,) for more vigorous measures
+against the traffic, both British and Foreign, gave notice of the Bill,
+which he next year carried through Parliament, and which declared the
+traffic to be a felony, punishable with transportation. Some years
+afterwards it was by another Act made capital, under the name of Piracy,
+but this has since been repealed. Several convictions have taken place
+under the former Act, (of 1811,) and there cannot be the least doubt
+that the law has proved effectual, and that the Slave Trade has long
+ceased to exist as far as the British dominions are concerned.
+
+That foreign states continue shamefully to carry it on, is no less
+certain. There are yearly transported to Cuba and Brazil, above 100,000
+unhappy beings, by the two weakest nations in Europe, and these two most
+entirely subject to the influence and even direct control of England.
+The inevitable consequence is, that more misery is now inflicted on
+Africa by the criminals, gently called Slave-traders, of these two
+guilty nations, than if there were no treaties for the abolition of the
+traffic. The number required is always carried over, and hence, as many
+perish by a miserable death in escaping from the cruisers, as reach
+their destination. The recitals of horror which have been made to
+Parliament and the country on this dreadful subject, are enough to
+curdle the blood in the veins and heart of any one endued with the
+common feelings of humanity. The whole system of prevention, or rather
+of capture, after the crime has been committed, seems framed with a view
+to exasperate the evils of the infernal traffic, to scourge Africa with
+more intolerable torments, and to make human blood be spilt like water.
+Our cruisers, are excited to an active discharge of their duty, by the
+benefit of sharing in the price fetched when the captured ship is
+condemned and sold; but this is a small sum, indeed, compared with the
+rich reward of head-money held out, being so much for every slave taken
+on board. It is thus made the direct interest of these cruisers, that
+the vessels should have their human cargoes on board, rather than be
+prevented from shipping them. True, this vile policy may prove less
+mischievous where no treaty exists, giving a right to seize when there
+are no slaves in the vessel, because here a slave ship is suffered to
+pass, how clear soever her destination might be; yet, even here, the
+inducement to send in boats, and seize as soon as a slave or two may be
+on board, is removed, and the cruiser is told, "only let all these
+wretched beings be torn from their country, and safely lodged in the
+vessel's hold, and your reward is great and sure." Then, whenever there
+is an outfit clause, that is a power to seize vessels fitted for the
+traffic, this mischievous plan tends directly to make the cruiser let
+the slaver make ready and put to sea, or it has no tendency or meaning
+at all. Accordingly, the course is for the cruiser to stand out to sea,
+and not allow herself to be seen in the offing--the crime is
+consummated--the slaves are stowed away--the pirate--captain weighs
+anchor--the pirate-vessel freighted with victims, and manned by
+criminals fares forth--the cruiser, the British cruiser, gives
+chace--and then begin those scenes of horror, surpassing all that the
+poet ever conceived, whose theme was the torments of the damned and the
+wickedness of the fiends. Casks are filled with the slave, and in these
+they are stowed away; or to lighten the vessel, they are flung overboard
+by the score; sometimes they are flung overboard in casks, that the
+chasing ship may be detained by endeavours to pick them up; the dying
+and the dead strew the deck; women giving birth to the fruit of the
+womb, amidst the corpses of their husbands and their children; and
+other, yet worse and nameless atrocities, fill up the terrible picture,
+of impotent justice and triumphant guilt. But the guilt is not all
+Spanish and Portuguese. The English Government can enforce its demands
+on the puny cabinets of Madrid and Lisbon, scarce conscious of a
+substantive existence, in all that concerns our petty interests:
+wherever justice and mercy to mankind demand our interference, there our
+voice sinks within us, and no sound is uttered. That any treaty without
+an outfit clause should be suffered to exist between powers so situated,
+is an outrage upon all justice, all reason, all common sense. But one
+thing is certain, that unless we are to go further, we have gone too
+far, and must in mercy to hapless Africa retrace our steps. Unless we
+really put the traffic down with a strong hand, and instantly, we must
+instantly repeal the treaties that pretended to abolish it, for these
+exacerbate the evil a hundred fold, and are ineffectual to any one
+purpose but putting money into the pockets of our men of war. The fact
+is as unquestionable, as it is appalling, that all our anxious
+endeavours to extinguish the Foreign Slave Trade, have ended in making
+it incomparably worse than it was before we pretended to put it down;
+that owing to our efforts, there are thrice the number of slaves yearly
+torn from Africa; and that wholly because of our efforts, two thirds of
+these are murdered on the high seas and in the holds of the pirate
+vessels.
+
+It is said, that when these scenes were described to an indignant nation
+last session of Parliament, the actual effects of this bad system were
+denied, though its tendency could not be disputed.
+
+It was averred that "no British seaman could be capable of neglecting
+his duty for the sake of increasing the gains of the station." But
+nothing could be more absurd than this. Can the direct and inevitable
+tendency of the head-money system be doubted? Are cruisers the only men
+over whom motives have no influence? Then why offer a reward at all?
+When they want no stimulus to perform their duty, why tell them that if
+the ship is empty, they get a hundred pounds: if laden, five thousand?
+They know the rules of arithmetic;--they understand the force of
+numbers. But, in truth, there is not an individual on all the coast of
+Africa who will be misled by such appeals, or suffer all this to divert
+them from their purpose of denouncing the system. There are persons high
+in rank among the best servants of the crown, who know the facts from
+their own observations, and who are ready to bear witness to the truth,
+in spite of all the attempts that have been made to silence them.
+
+The other great object of the African Institution regarded the West
+Indies. The preparation of the negroes for that freedom which was their
+absolute right, and could only be withheld for an hour, on the ground of
+their not being prepared for it, and therefore being better without it,
+was the first thing to be accomplished. Here the friends of the
+abolition, all but Mr. Stephen, suffered a great disappointment. He
+alone had uniformly-foretold that the hopes held out, as it seemed very
+reasonably, of better treatment resulting from the stoppage of the
+supply of hands, were fallacious. All else had supposed that interest
+might operate on men whom principle had failed to sway; that they whom
+no feelings of compassion for their fellow-creatures could move to do
+their duty, might be touched by a feeling of their own advantage, when
+interest coincided with duty. The Slave-mart is now closed, it was said;
+surely the stock on hand will be saved by all means, and not wasted when
+it can no longer be replaced. The argument was purposely rested on the
+low ground of regarding human beings as cattle, or even as inanimate
+chattels, and it was conceived that human life would be regarded of as
+much value as the wear and tear of beasts, of furniture, or of tools.
+Hence it was expected that a better system of treatment would follow,
+from the law which closed the African market, and warned every planter
+that his stock must be spared by better treatment, and kept up by
+breeding, since it no longer could be, as it hitherto had been,
+maintained by new supplies.
+
+Two considerations were, in these arguments, kept out of view, both of a
+practical nature, and both known to Mr. Stephen,--the cultivation of the
+Islands by agents having wholly different interests from their masters,
+and the gambling spirit of trading and culture which long habit had
+implanted in the West Indian nature. The comforts of the slave depended
+infinitely more upon the agent on the spot, than the owner generally
+resident in the mother country; and though the interest of the latter
+might lead to the saving of negro life, and care for negro comforts, the
+agent had no such motives to influence his conduct; besides, it was with
+the eyes of this agent that the planter must see, and he gave no
+credence to any accounts but his. Now the consequence of cruelty is to
+make men at war with its objects. No one but a most irritable person
+feels angry with his beast, and even the anger of such a person is of a
+moment's duration. But towards an inanimate chattel even the most
+irritable of sane men can feel nothing like rage. Why? Because in the
+one case there is little, in the other no conflict or resistance at all.
+It is otherwise with a slave; he is human, and can disobey--can even
+resist. This feeling always rankles in his oppressor's bosom, and makes
+the tyrannical superior hate, and the more oppress his slave. The agent
+on the spot feels thus, and thus acts; nor can the voice of the owner at
+a distance be heard, even if interest, clearly proved, were to prompt
+another course. But the chief cause of the evil is the spirit of
+speculation, and it affects and rules resident owners even more than
+absentees. Let sugar rise in price, and all cold calculations of
+ultimate loss to the gang are lost in the vehement thirst of great
+present gain. All, or nearly all, planters are in distressed
+circumstances. They look to the next few years as their time; and if the
+sun shines they must make hay. They are in the mine, toiling for a
+season, with every desire to escape and realize something to spend
+elsewhere. Therefore they make haste to be rich, and care little, should
+the speculation answer and much sugar bring in great gain, what becomes
+of the gang ten years hence. Add to all this, that any interference of
+the local legislatures to discourage sordid or cruel management, to
+clothe the slaves with rights, to prepare them for freedom by better
+education, to pave the way for emancipation by restraining the master's
+power, to create an intermediate State of transition from slavery to
+freedom by partial liberty, as by attaching them to the soil, and
+placing them in the preparatory state through which our ancestors in
+Europe passed from bondage in gross to entire independence--all such
+measures were in the absolute discretion; not of the planters, but of
+the resident agents, one of the worst communities in the world, who had
+little interest in preparing for an event which they deprecated, and
+whose feelings of party, as well as individually, were all ranged on the
+oppressor's side. All this Mr. Stephen, enlightened by experience, and
+wise by long reflection, clearly and alone foresaw; all this vision of
+the future was too surely realized by the event. No improvement of
+treatment took place; no additional liberality in the supplies was
+shown; no abstinence in the exaction of labour appeared; no interference
+of the Colonial Legislature to check misconduct was witnessed; far less
+was the least disposition perceived to give any rights to the slaves,
+any security against oppression, any title independent of his Master,
+any intermediate state or condition which might prepare him for freedom.
+It is enough to say, that a measure which every man, except Mr. Stephen,
+had regarded as the natural, almost the necessary effect of the
+abolition--attaching the slaves to the soil--was not so much as
+propounded, far less adopted; it may be even said, was never mentioned
+in any one local assembly of any of our numerous colonies, during the
+thirty years which elapsed between the abolition and the emancipation!
+This is unquestionable, and it is decisive.
+
+As soon as it began to be perceived that such was likely to be the
+result of the abolition in regard to the emancipation, Mr. Stephen's
+authority with his coadjutors, always high, rose in proportion to the
+confirmations which the event had lent his predictions; and his zealous
+endeavours and unwearied labours for the subversion of the accursed
+system became both more extensive and more effectual. If, however,
+strict justice requires the tribute which we have paid to this eminent
+person's distinguished services, justice also renders it imperative on
+the historian of the Abolition in all its branches, to record an error
+into which he fell. Having originally maintained that the traffic would
+survive the Act of 1807, in which he was right, that Act only imposing
+pecuniary penalties, he persisted in the same opinion after the Act of
+1811 had made slave-trading a felony; and long after it had been
+effectually put down in the British dominions, he continued to maintain
+that it was carried on nearly as much as ever, reasoning upon
+calculations drawn from the island returns. Hence he insisted upon a
+general Registry Act, as essential to prevent the continuance of an
+importation which had little or no real existence. The importance of
+such a measure was undeniable, with a view to secure the good treatment
+of the negroes in the islands; but the extinction of the Slave Trade had
+long before been effectually accomplished.
+
+In the efforts to obtain Negro Emancipation, all the Abolitionists were
+now prepared to join. The conduct of the Colonial Assemblies having long
+shown the fallacy of those expectations which had been entertained of
+the good work being done in the islands as soon as the supply of new
+hands should be stopped by the Abolition, there remained no longer any
+doubt whatever, that the mother country alone could abate a nuisance
+hateful in the sight of God and man. Constant opportunities were
+therefore offered to agitate this great question, which was taken up by
+the enlightened, the humane, and the religious, all over the empire.
+
+The magnitude of the subject was indeed worthy of all the interest it
+excited. The destiny of nearly a million of human beings--nay, the
+question whether they should be treated as men with rational souls, or
+as the beasts which perish--should enjoy the liberty to which all God's
+creatures are entitled, as of right, or be harassed, oppressed,
+tormented, and stinted, both as regarded bodily food, and spiritual
+instruction--whether the colonies should be peopled with tyrants and
+barbarians, or inhabited by civilized and improving christian
+communities--was one calculated to put in action all the best principles
+of our nature, and to move all the noblest feelings of the human heart.
+
+Thomas Clarkson, as far as his means extended, aided this great
+excitement. He renewed his committees of correspondence all over the
+country; aided by the Society of Friends, his early and steady
+coadjutors in this pious work, he recommenced the epistolary intercourse
+with the provinces, held for so many hopeless years on the Slave Trade,
+but now made far more promising by the victory which had been obtained,
+and by the unanimity with which all Abolitionists now were resolved to
+procure emancipation. He also recommenced his journeys through the
+different parts of the island, and visited in succession part of
+Scotland, almost all England, and the whole of Wales, encouraging and
+interesting the friends of humanity wherever he went, and forming local
+societies and committees for furthering the common object.
+
+But it was, after all, in Parliament that the battle must be fought; and
+Mr. Buxton, of whose invaluable services in the House of Commons the
+cause has lately been deprived, repeatedly, with the support of Messrs.
+Wilberforce, William Smith, Brougham, Lushington, and others, urged the
+necessity of interference upon the representatives of a people unanimous
+in demanding it; and he repeatedly urged it in vain. The Government
+always leaned towards the planter, and the most flimsy excuses were
+constantly given for preferring to the effectual measures propounded by
+the Abolitionists, the most flimsy of expedients, useless for any one
+purpose, save that of making pretences and gaining time.
+
+At length came the great case of the missionary Smith's persecution,
+trial, and untimely death, when all the forms of judicature had been
+prostituted, all the rules of law broken, all the principles of justice
+outraged, by men assuming to sit in judgment as a court of criminal
+jurisprudence; and though assisted by legal functionaries, exhibiting
+such a spectacle of daring violation of the most received and best known
+canons of procedure, as no civilized community ever before were called
+upon to endure. This subject was immediately brought before Parliament
+by Mr. Brougham, and his motion of censure, which might have been an
+impeachment of the governor and the court of Demerara, was powerfully
+supported by Mr. Wilberforce, the amiable, eloquent, and venerable
+leader of the party, Mr. Denman, Mr. Williams, and Dr. Lushington, but
+rejected by a majority of the Commons, whom Mr. Canning led, in a speech
+little worthy of his former exertions against the Slave Trade, and far
+from being creditable either to his judgment or to his principles. Yet
+this memorable debate was of singular service to the cause. The great
+speeches delivered were spread through all parts of the country; the
+nakedness of the horrid system was exposed; the corruptions as well as
+cruelty of slavery were laid bare; the determination of colonies to
+protect its worst abuses was demonstrated; necessity of the
+mother-country interfering with a strong hand was declared; and even the
+loss of the motion showed the people of England how much their own
+exertions were still required if they would see slavery extirpated, by
+proving that upon them alone the fate of the execrable system hung.
+
+The effects of this great debate cannot be over estimated. The case of
+the missionary became the universal topic; The name of the martyred
+Smith, the general rallying cry. The superior interest excited by
+individual sufferings to any general misery inflicted upon masses of the
+people, or any evil, however gigantic, which operates over a large
+space, and in a course of time, has always been observed. The remark was
+peculiarly applicable in this instance. Although all reflecting men had,
+for many long years, been well aware of the evils pervading our colonial
+system, and though the iniquity and perverseness of West Indian
+judicatures had long been the topic of universal comment, yet this
+single case of a persecuted individual falling a victim to those gross
+perversions of law and justice which are familiar to the colonial
+people, produced an impression far more general and more deep than all
+that had ever been written or declaimed against system of West India
+slavery; and looking back on the consummation of all our hopes in 1833
+and 1838, we at once revert from this auspicious era to that ever
+memorable occasion as having laid the solid foundation of our ultimate
+triumph.
+
+In this important day, which has thus by its effects proved decisive of
+the Emancipation question, Mr. Stephen bore no part. He had long ceased
+to adorn and enlighten the House of Commons. His retirement was the
+result of honest differences of opinion respecting West India slavery
+with his political friends, then in the plenitude of their power. Those
+differences caused him to take the noble part, so rarely acted by
+politicians, of withdrawing from Parliament rather than lend his great
+support to men with whom he differed upon a question admitting no
+compromise; and he devoted his exertions in private life to the
+furtherance of the cause ever nearest his heart, the publication of his
+able and elaborate work on the Colonial Slave Laws was the fruit of his
+leisure; and had he never lent any other aid to the Emancipation, this
+would alone have placed him high among its most able and effective
+supporters. In all the consultations which were held before Mr.
+Brougham's motion in 1824, he bore an active and useful part. In pushing
+the advantages gained by the debate he was unwearied and successful.
+Unhappily it pleased Providence that he should not receive here below
+the final reward of his long and valued labours; for he was called to
+his final repose some months before the Emancipation Bill passed into a
+law.
+
+There remains little to add, except that this measure, which was carried
+with little opposition in 1833, owed its success in Parliament to the
+ample bribe of twenty millions, by which the acquiescence of the West
+Indians was purchased. The measure had hardly come into operation, when
+all men perceived that the intermediate state of apprenticeship was
+anything rather than a preparation for freedom, and anything rather than
+a mitigation of slavery. It is due to some able and distinguished
+friends of the negro race to state, that they all along were averse to
+this plan of a transition state. Lord Howick, then in the Colonial
+Office as Under-Secretary, went so far as to leave the department, from
+his dislike of this part of the measure. Mr. Buxton and others protested
+against it. Even its friends intimated that they wished the period of
+apprenticeship to end in 1838 instead of 1840; but there was a general
+belief of the preparatory step being necessary,--a belief apparently
+founded on experience of the negro character, and indeed of the vicious
+tendency of all slavery, to extinguish the power of voluntary labour, as
+well as to make the sudden change to freedom unsafe for the peace of the
+community. The fact soon dispersed these opinions. Antigua in a minute
+emancipated all her slaves to the number of thirty thousand and upwards.
+Not a complaint was ever heard of idleness or indolence; and, far from
+any breach of the peace being induced by the sudden change in the
+condition of the people, the Christmas of 1833 was the first, for the
+last twenty years, that martial law was not proclaimed, in order to
+preserve the public peace. Similar evidence from Jamaica and other
+islands, proving the industrious and peaceable habits of the
+apprentices, showed that there was nothing peculiar in the circumstances
+of Antigua.
+
+An important occurrence is now to be recorded as having exercised a
+powerful influence upon the question of immediate emancipation. Joseph
+Sturge, of Birmingham, a member of the Society of Friends, stricken with
+a sense of the injustice perpetrated against the African race, repaired
+to the West Indies, in order that he might examine, with his own eyes,
+the real state of the question between the two classes. He was
+accompanied by John Scoble and Thomas Harvey; and these able, excellent,
+and zealous men returned in a few months with such ample evidence of the
+effects produced by apprenticeship, and the fitness of the negroes for
+liberty, that the attention of the community was soon awakened to the
+subject, even more strenuously than it ever before had been; and the
+walls of Parliament were soon made once more to ring with the sufferings
+of the slave, only emancipated in name, and the injustice of withholding
+from him any longer the freedom which was his indefeasible right, as
+soon as he was shown capable of enjoying it beneficially for himself and
+safely for the rest of the community.
+
+In these transactions, both in Jamaica, where he is one of the largest
+planters, and in Parliament, where he is one of the most respected
+members, the Marquess of Sligo bore an eminent and an honourable part.
+His praise has been justly sounded by all who have supported the cause
+of negro freedom, and his conduct was by all admitted to be as much
+marked by the disinterested virtue of a good citizen and amiable man, as
+it was by the sagacity and ability of an enlightened statesman. Both as
+governor of Jamaica, as the owner of slaves whom he voluntarily
+liberated, and as a peer of Parliament, his patriotism, his humanity,
+and his talents, shone conspicuously through this severe and glorious
+struggle. While such was the conduct of those eminent philanthropists,
+some difference of opinion prevailed among the other and older leaders
+of the cause, chiefly grounded upon doubts whether the arrangement made
+by Parliament in 1833, might not be regarded as a compact with the
+planters which it would be unjust to violate by terminating their right
+to the labour of the apprentices at a period earlier than the one fixed
+in the Emancipation Act. A little consideration of the question at issue
+soon dispelled those doubts, and removed every obstacle to united
+exertion, by restoring entire unanimity of opinion. The slaves, it was
+triumphantly affirmed, were no party to the compact. But moreover, the
+whole arrangement of the apprenticeship was intended as a benefit to
+them, by giving them the preparation thought to be required before they
+could, safely for themselves, be admitted to unrestricted freedom,--not
+as a benefit to the planters, whose acquiescence was purchased with the
+grant of twenty millions. Experience having shown that no preparation at
+all was required, it was preposterous to continue the restraint upon
+natural liberty an hour longer, as regarded the negroes,--the only party
+whom we had any right to consider in the question; and as for the
+planters there was the grossest absurdity in further regarding any
+interests or any claims of theirs. The arrangement of 1833, as far as
+regards the transition or intermediate state, had been made under an
+error in fact, an error propagated by the representations of the
+masters. That error was now at an end, and an immediate alteration of
+the provisions to which it had given rise was thus a matter of strict
+justice;--not to mention that the planters had failed to perform their
+part of the contract. The Colonial Assemblies had, except in Antigua,
+done nothing for the slave in return for the large sum bestowed upon the
+West India body. So that in any view there was an end of all pretext for
+the further delay of right and justice.
+
+The ground now taken by the whole Abolitionists; therefore, both in and
+out of Parliament was, that the two years which remained of the
+indentured apprenticeship must immediately be cut off, and freedom given
+to the slaves in August, 1838, instead of 1840; The peace of the West
+Indian community, and the real interests of the planters, were affirmed
+to be as much concerned in this change as the rights of the negroes
+themselves. Far from preparing them for becoming peaceable subjects and
+contented members of society at the end of their apprenticeship, those
+two years of compulsory labour would, it was justly observed, be a
+period of heart-burning and discontent between master and servant, which
+must, in the mean while, be dangerous to the peace of society, and must
+leave, at the end of the time, a feeling of mutual ill-will and
+distrust. The question could no longer be kept from the cognizance of
+the negro people. Indeed, their most anxious expectations were already
+pointed towards immediate liberty, and their strongest feelings were
+roused to obtain it.
+
+Of these sentiments the whole community partook; meetings were
+everywhere held; petitions crowded the tables of Parliament; the press
+poured forth innumerable tracts which were eagerly received; the pulpit
+lent its aid to this holy cause; and discussions upon petitions and upon
+incidental motions shook the walls of Parliament, while they stimulated
+the zeal of the people. The Government adopted an unfortunate course,
+which contributed greatly to weaken their hold on the confidence and
+affections of the country; they resisted all the motions that were made
+on behalf of the slaves, and appeared to regard only the interests of
+the master, turning a deaf ear to the arguments of right and of justice.
+
+It was found, during the course of these debates, that a new Slave Trade
+had sprung up in the East Indies, with the sanction of an English Order
+in Council. Under pretence that hands were wanted to cultivate their
+estates, the Demerara planters had obtained permission to import what
+they termed, with a delicacy borrowed from the vocabulary of the African
+Slave Trade, "labourers" from Asia and from Africa east of the Cape, and
+to make them Indentured Apprentices for a term of years. No restrictions
+whatever were imposed by this unheard-of Order. No tonnage was required
+in proportion to the numbers shipped, no amount of provision, no medical
+assistance; no precautions were taken, or so much as thought of, to
+prevent kidnapping and fraud, nay, to prevent main force being used in
+any part of Eastern Africa, or of all Asia, in carrying on board the
+victims of West Indian avarice; in short, a worse Slave Trade than the
+African was established, and all the dominions of the East India
+Company, with all the African and Asiatic coasts, as yet independent,
+were given over to its ravages. This was repeatedly denounced by Lord
+Brougham in the House of Lords; and although his motion for rescinding
+the order was supported by Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Ellenborough, and Lord
+Wharncliffe, the influence of the Government and the planters prevailed,
+and the House rejected it. A bill was afterwards brought in to check the
+enormities complained of; but no remedy at all effectual is as yet
+applied. The official documents, however, proved that already men had
+been inveigled on board, by the agents of the Mauritius planters, in
+different parts of the East, and that the mortality on that
+comparatively short voyage exceeded even the dreadful waste of life
+which had characterized, and impressed with marks of horrid atrocity,
+the accursed Middle Passage.
+
+This subject, as might well be expected, once more roused the energies
+of Thomas Clarkson: he addressed an able and convincing letter to Lord
+Brougham, his old friend and coadjutor in the sacred cause; and it was
+printed and universally circulated. The subject still remains unsettled:
+and the labours of the enlightened philanthropist cannot now be directed
+to one more important, or more urgent.
+
+Meanwhile, in the spring of 1838, the question of Immediate Emancipation
+was agitated throughout the country. The Government proved hostile.
+Immense meetings were held at Exeter Hall, which were attended by many
+members of Parliament, over which Lord Brougham presided. Among others
+who were present and bore a distinguished part, were certain
+representatives of Ireland who promised their strenuous support. It is a
+painful duty to add, that their fellow-members from Ireland did not, on
+this great occasion, follow their good example; for eleven only of
+those, on whose votes reliance had been placed, opposed the Government,
+while no less than twenty-seven gave them support.
+
+The question was rejected by the House of Lords, when brought forward by
+Lord Brougham; but in spite of the efforts of the Government; the
+defalcation of the Irish, of a still greater proportion of the Scotch
+representatives, two hundred and seventeen members of the House of
+Commons voted for Immediate Abolition, out of four hundred and
+eighty-nine who were present on the occasion. A second effort in the
+same session placed Ministers in a minority; but they immediately gave
+notice, they should strenuously oppose any attempt to carry into
+practical effect this decision of the House; and in this determination
+they were supported by a majority on a third division.
+
+The word, however, had gone forth all over England, that the _Slave
+should be free_. It had not only pervaded Europe, it had reached
+America; and the West Indians at length perceived that they could no
+longer resist the voice of the British people, when it spoke the accents
+of humanity and of justice. The slaves would have met the dawn of the
+first of August,--the day which all the motions in Parliament and all
+the prayers of the petitions had fixed,--with perfect quiet, but with a
+resolute determination to do no work. The peace would not have been
+broken, but no more would a clod have been turned after that appointed
+sun had risen. A handful of whites surrounded by myriads of
+negroes,--now substantially free, and free without a blow,--must have
+been overwhelmed in an hour after sunrise on that day, had they
+resisted. The Colonial Legislatures, therefore, _now_ listened to the
+voice of reason, and they, one after another, emancipated their slaves.
+The first of August saw not a bondsman, under whatever appellation, in
+any part of the Western Sea which owns the British rule.
+
+The Mauritius, however, still held out, and on the Mauritius the hand of
+the Imperial Parliament must and will be laid, to enforce mercy and
+justice on those to whom mercy and justice have so long called aloud in
+vain. In truth, if the case for instant emancipation was strong
+everywhere, it was in no quarter half so strong as in the Mauritius; and
+the distribution of the grant by Parliament to this Colony was the most
+unjustifiable, and even incomprehensible. For, elsewhere, there existed
+at least a title to the slave, over whom an unjust and unchristian law
+recognised the right of property. But in the Mauritius there was not,
+nor is there now, one negro to whom a good title is clearly provable.
+The atrocious conduct of Governors and other functionaries, in conniving
+at the Slave Trade of Eastern Africa, had filled that Colony with
+thousands of negroes, every one of whom was carried there by the
+commission of felony, long after Slave Trading had been declared a
+capital crime by the law of the land, as by the law of nature it always
+was. Sir George Murray, when Colonial Secretary of State, had admitted,
+that at least thirty thousand of the negroes in the settlement were
+nominally slaves, but in reality free, having been carried thither
+contrary to law. He understated it by twenty thousand or more: yet on
+all these negroes, in respect of property, were two millions and more
+claimed: for all these the compensation money was given and taken, which
+Parliament had lavishly bestowed. How then was it possible to doubt,
+that every slave in the Mauritius should receive his freedom, when the
+only ground alleged for not singling out and liberating this fifty
+thousand, was the inability to distinguish them from the rest? If ten
+men are tried for an offence, and it is clear that five are innocent,
+though you cannot distinguish them from their companions, what jury will
+hesitate in acquitting the whole, on the ordinary principle of its being
+better five guilty should escape than five guiltless suffer? The same is
+still the state of the case in that most criminal settlement, which,
+having far surpassed all others in the enormity of its guilt, is now the
+only one where no attempt has been made to evince repentance by
+amendment of conduct. But the Government which has the power of
+compelling justice will share the crime which they refuse to prevent,
+and the Legislature must compel the Government, if their guilty
+reluctance shall continue, or it will take that guilt upon itself[A].
+
+[Footnote A: It is truly gratifying to state, that the late Secretary
+for the Colonies, Lord Glenelg, has, since this was written, given the
+most satisfactory assurances of orders having been sent over for
+immediate emancipation, in case the former instructions to the Governor
+of Mauritius should have failed, to make the Colonists themselves adopt
+the measure. Lord Glenelg's conduct on this occasion is most creditable
+to him.]
+
+The latest act of Thomas Clarkson's life has been one which, or rather
+the occasion for which, it is truly painful to contemplate; but this too
+must be recorded, or the present historical sketch would be incomplete.
+He whose days had all been spent in acts of kindness and of justice to
+others, was at last forced to exert his powers, supposed, by some, and
+erroneously supposed, to be enfeebled by age, in obtaining redress for
+his own wrongs. He whose thoughts had all been devoted to the service of
+his fellow-creatures, was now obliged to think of himself. A life spent
+in works of genuine philanthropy, alike standing aloof from party, and
+retiring with genuine humility from the public gaze, might have well
+hoped to escape that detraction, which is the lot of those who assume
+the leading stations among their contemporaries, and mingle in the
+contentious scenes of worldly affairs. Or, at least, it might have been
+expected that his traducers would only be found among the oppressors of
+the New World, or the slave-traders of the Old. This felicity has not
+been his lot; and the evening of his days has been overcast by an
+assault upon his character, proceeding from the quarter of all others
+the most unexpected and the most strange.
+
+The sons of his old and dear friend William Wilberforce,--whose
+incomparable merits he had ever been the first to acknowledge, whom he
+loved as a brother, and revered as the great leader of the cause to
+which his whole life had been devoted,--in publishing a Life of their
+illustrious parent, thought fit to charge Thomas Clarkson with having
+suppressed his services while he exaggerated his own; and not content
+with bringing a charge utterly groundless, (as it was instantly proved,)
+they deemed it worthy of their subject and of their name, to drag forth
+into the light of day a private correspondence of a delicate nature,
+with the purpose of proving that their father and others had assisted
+him with money, and that he had been pressing in his demands of a
+subscription. Two extracts of Letters of his were printed by these
+reverend gentlemen, upon which a statement was afterwards grounded in
+the _Edinburgh Review_ of their book, that the subscription was raised
+to remunerate him for his services in the Abolition. They further
+asserted, that their father was in the field before him, and that it was
+under their father's direction that he, and the Abolition Committee of
+1786, acted. In the whole history of controversy, we venture to affirm,
+there never was an instance of so triumphant a refutation as that by
+which these slanderous aspersions were instantly refuted, and their
+authors and their accomplices reduced to a silence as prudent as
+discreditable.
+
+The venerable philanthropist took up his pen, worn down in the cause of
+humanity and of justice. _First_, he showed, by incontrovertible
+evidence, the utter falsehood of the charge, that he had underrated the
+merits of others and exalted his own. These proofs were the references
+to his volumes themselves, which it really seemed as if the two reverend
+authors had never even looked into. He then proved to demonstration that
+he had taken the field earlier than William Wilberforce. This was shown,
+first, by known dates, matter of history; next, by letters from the
+friends of both parties, as Archdeacon Corbet and William Smith; but,
+lastly, by the words of William Wilberforce himself, as well privately
+as at public meetings, asserting that he (William Wilberforce) came into
+the field after his valued friend. But a striking fact may be cited, as
+a sample at once of the course pursued by the assailants, and the
+completeness of the defence. The reverend authors in proof of their
+unqualified assertion, that Thomas Clarkson and the Committee acted from
+the first under William Wilberforce's directions, refer to "MS. Minutes
+of the Committee" for their authority. But the friend who so ably
+superintended the publication of Thomas Clarkson's defence, and who
+added to that tract an appendix of singular merit and great interest
+(H.C. Robinson), showed that the parts referred to by the reverend
+authors, in proof of their assertion, completely disproved it; and that
+six months after the Committee had been working, William Wilberforce
+applied to them for any information of which they might be possessed on
+the subject of the Slave Trade.
+
+But the publication of the letters and the colour given to the
+transaction were far worse. The preservation of that correspondence, at
+all, by the sons, could only be justified by the belief of its being
+accidentally kept by the father, but, of course, never intended to be
+made public; least of all without the usual precaution of asking the
+writer's leave, and giving him the opportunity of explaining it. The
+biographers printed it without any kind of communication with him, and
+he saw it for the first time in print.
+
+Then, the attempt was made to represent this pure, and valuable, and
+disinterested man as a mendicant philanthropist, who, for his exertions
+in the cause of justice, stooped to the humiliating attitude of
+collecting a remuneration from his friends. The words of William
+Wilberforce, and other Abolition leaders, prove that he had expended a
+very considerable portion of his own small patrimony in the cause, and
+that the subscription was to pay a debt,--a just and lawful debt; not to
+confer a bounty, or reward, or remuneration for services performed. It
+is also proved, that after being reimbursed to the amount of the sum
+contributed, or rather levied on those for whom the poorest of their
+body had advanced his own money, he remained out of pocket far more than
+others had ever given, after their share of the repayment was credited
+to them, in this debtor and creditor account.
+
+But this is not all: Mr. Wilberforce himself, then a man of ample
+fortune, and Member for Yorkshire, had in 1807, published a pamphlet in
+the cause. The Minutes of the Committee for 6th June, 1811, contained an
+entry of an order to pay 83_l_. out of the subscription funds to Mr.
+Cadell, being Mr. Wilberforce's share of the loss sustained by that
+publication. There had been no mention at all of this in his life, by
+these reverend authors, who scrupled not to print the garbled letters,
+with the manifest design of lowering the character of their father's
+friend, by ranking him among venal stipendiary pretenders to
+philanthropy, and jobbing mendicant patriots.
+
+Wherefore, it may be asked, was this matter at all dragged forth to
+light, except to effect that unworthy purpose, and to give pain to a man
+as eminently as deservedly respected and beloved? The false pretext is,
+the vindication of their father's memory.--But it had never been
+attacked. They affect to suppose such an attack, that they may have a
+pretext for inflicting a wound in a fictitious and almost a fraudulent
+defence.--But if it had been ever so rudely attacked, the letters are no
+defence. For the only possible pretence of attack was the notion of
+Thomas Clarkson having assumed the priority, and these letters can have
+no earthly relation to that point. Whether Wilberforce, or Clarkson, or
+neither of them, first began the abolition struggle, is a question as
+utterly wide of the subscription as any one private matter in the life
+of either party can be of any one public transaction in which both were
+engaged.
+
+The indignation of mankind was awakened by this disgraceful proceeding,
+and it was in vain that the friends of the Wilberforces urged, as some
+extenuation of their offence, the zeal which they naturally cherished
+for the memory of their parent. Men of reflection felt that no
+well-regulated mind can ever engage in slandering one person for the
+purpose of elevating another. Men of ordinary discernment perceived that
+the assaults on Clarkson's reputation had no possible tendency to raise
+Wilberforce's reputation. Men of observation saw at once that there
+lurked behind the wish to praise the one party, a desire to wound the
+other; and gave them far less credit for over-anxiety to gratify their
+filial affections than eagerness to indulge their hostile feelings. It
+was plain, too, that they sought this gratification at the hazard of
+bringing a stain upon the memory of their father; for what could be more
+natural than the suspicion that they had obtained from him the materials
+out of which their web of detraction was woven? And what more
+discreditable to the author of the affectionate and familiar letters of
+Wilberforce to Clarkson than their discrepancy with the charges now
+urged against him? It is due to the memory of this venerable man, now
+gone to his rest, to say that no one who knew him, ever so slightly,
+could believe in the possibility of his holding one language to his
+friend and another to his children: far less of his bequeathing to them
+anything like materials for the attack upon one to whom he professed the
+most warm and steady attachment. But if such be the conclusion of all
+who knew the man, assuredly in arriving at it they have derived no help
+from the lights afforded by his family.
+
+The vindication of Thomas Clarkson has been triumphant; the punishment
+of his traducers has been exemplary. His character stands higher than
+ever; his name is lofty and it is unsullied; they have a character to
+retrieve,--a name which they have tarnished since it descended upon
+them, they have to restore by their own future deserts.
+
+The astonishment of the world was at its pitch when the champion of
+Abolition, the steady ally of Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharpe, the
+_Edinburgh Review_, was seen attempting to rescue these parties, and
+taking part against the injured man, the patriarch of a cause defended
+by that celebrated Journal during a brilliant period of much above
+thirty years. The boldness displayed in its pages on this occasion was
+excessive. As if feeling that the weak and indefensible part in the
+assault was the publishing of the letters, it had the confidence to
+affirm, that this proceeding was called for in justice to Wilberforce's
+memory. So daring an attempt upon the integrity of facts has not often
+been witnessed. What! The publication of these letters, which had no
+possible connexion with Wilberforce's character, (a character, indeed,
+that no one had assailed,) letters which were absolutely foreign even to
+the question of priority in the abolition cause,--the publication of
+these necessary to the defence of Wilberforce? Then, upon what ground
+necessary? How had he been attacked? Where was he to be defended? But,
+if attacked, how did the letters aid,--how connect themselves
+with,--how, in any manner of way, bear upon the defence, or any defence,
+or any portion of Wilberforce's character and life? They showed him to
+have contributed towards the payment of a debt he had contracted to
+Clarkson. But who had ever charged him with refusing to pay his debts?
+With his merits as to the Abolition, (if that be what is meant by his
+character,)--merits which it was a mere fabrication to pretend that
+Clarkson had ever been slow to acknowledge,--those letters had
+absolutely no possible connexion; and whoever, on this score, affects to
+defend this publication, is capable of vindicating the printing any
+private letter upon the most delicate subject, by any man who writes the
+history of any other affair, or who writes on any subject from which the
+correspondence is wholly foreign. It is proper to add, that the editors
+of this Journal have most properly published a retractation of the
+charges made, in their ignorance of the whole facts of the case.
+
+The acute and sagacious editor of T. Clarkson's vindication, has given
+his reasons for suspecting that this criticism, in the _Edinburgh
+Review_, must have proceeded from some party directly concerned in the
+publication of Wilberforce's life. We enter into no discussion of the
+circumstantial evidence adduced in favour of this supposition. The
+editors of the Journal are the parties to whom we look; and as they,
+after being to all appearance misled by some partial writer, have made
+the best reparation for an involuntary error, by doing justice to the
+injured party, we can have no further remark to make upon the subject.
+
+But it is impossible to close these pages without mentioning the
+extraordinary merit of this latest, and, in all likelihood, this last
+production of Clarkson's pen. It is indeed a most able performance, and
+has been admired by some of the ablest controversial writers of the age,
+as a model of excellence in controversial writing. Plain, vigorous,
+convincing, perfectly calm and temperate, devoid of all acrimony, barely
+saying enough to repel unjust aggression without one word of
+retaliation, never losing sight for a moment of its purely defensive
+object, and accordingly, from the singleness of purpose with which that
+object is pursued, attaining it with the most triumphant success,--no
+wonder that the public judgment has been loudly and universally
+pronounced in its favour, that its adversaries have been reduced to
+absolute silence, that its author's name has been exalted even higher
+than before it stood. But the wonder is to see such unimpaired vigour at
+four-score years of age, after a life of unwearied labour, latterly
+clouded by domestic calamity, and a spirit as young as ever in zeal for
+justice, tempered only by the mellowness which the kindly heart spreads
+over the fruits of the manly understanding.
+
+There wanted no testimonials of esteem from his country to consummate
+the venerable philanthropist's renown; yet these too have been added.
+Various meetings have addressed their gratulations to him. Of these the
+great corporation of London claims the first regard, and after
+presenting him with the freedom of the city, they have ordered to be
+erected in their hall, as a memorial of his extraordinary virtue, a
+likeness of the mortal form of Thomas Clarkson.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+No subject more pleasing than that of the removal of evils.--Evils
+have existed almost from the beginning of the world; but there is a
+power in our nature to counteract them--this power increased by
+Christianity.--Of the evils removed by Christianity one of the
+greatest is the Slave Trade.--The joy we ought to feel on its
+abolition from a contemplation of the nature of it; and of the extent
+of it; and of the difficulty of subduing it.--Usefulness also of the
+contemplation of this subject.
+
+
+I scarcely know of any subject, the contemplation of which is more
+pleasing, than that of the correction or of the removal of any of the
+acknowledged evils of life; for while we rejoice to think that the
+sufferings of our fellow-creatures have been thus, in any instance,
+relieved, we must rejoice equally to think, that our own moral condition
+must have been necessarily improved by the change.
+
+That evils, both physical and moral, have existed long upon earth there
+can be no doubt. One of the sacred writers, to whom we more immediately
+appeal for the early history of mankind, informs us that the state of
+our first parents was a state of innocence and happiness; but that, soon
+after their creation, sin and misery entered into the world. The poets
+in their fables, most of which, however extravagant they may seem, had
+their origin in truth, speak the same language. Some of these represent
+the first condition of man by the figure of the golden, and his
+subsequent degeneracy and subjection to suffering by that of the silver,
+and afterwards of the iron age. Others tell us that the first female was
+made of clay; that she was called Pandora, because every necessary gift,
+qualification, or endowment, was given to her by the gods, but that she
+received from Jupiter, at the same time, a box from which, when opened,
+a multitude of disorders sprung, and that these spread themselves
+immediately afterwards among all of the human race. Thus it appears,
+whatever authorities we consult, that those which may be termed the
+evils of life existed in the earliest times. And what does subsequent
+history, combined with our own experience, tell us, but that these have
+been continued, or that they have come down in different degrees through
+successive generations of men, in all the known countries of the
+universe, to the present day?
+
+But though the inequality visible in the different conditions of life,
+and the passions interwoven into our nature, (both which have been
+allotted to us for wise purposes, and without which we could not easily
+afford a proof of the existence of that, which is denominated virtue,)
+have a tendency to produce vice and wretchedness among us, yet we see,
+in this our constitution, what may operate partially as preventives and
+corrective of them. If there be a radical propensity in our nature to do
+that which is wrong, there is, on the other hand, a counteracting power
+within it, or an impulse by means of the action of the divine Spirit
+upon our minds, which urges us to do that which is right. If the voice
+of temptation, clothed in musical and seducing accents, charms us one
+way, the voice of holiness, speaking to us from within, in a solemn and
+powerful manner, commands us another. Does one man obtain a victory over
+his corrupt affections? an immediate perception of pleasure, like the
+feeling of a reward divinely conferred upon him, is noticed. Does
+another fall prostrate beneath their power? a painful feeling, and such
+as pronounces to him the sentence of reproof and punishment is found to
+follow. If one, by suffering his heart to become hardened, oppresses a
+fellow-creature, the tear of sympathy starts up in the eye of another,
+and the latter instantly feels a desire, involuntarily generated, of
+flying to his relief. Thus impulses, feelings, and dispositions have
+been implanted in our nature, for the purpose of preventing and
+rectifying the evils of life. And as these have operated, so as to
+stimulate some men to lessen them by the exercise of an amiable charity,
+so they have operated to stimulate others in various other ways to the
+same end. Hence the philosopher has left moral precepts behind him in
+favour of benevolence, and the legislator has endeavoured to prevent
+barbarous practices by the introduction of laws.
+
+In consequence then of these impulses and feelings, by which the pure
+power in our nature is thus made to act as a check upon the evil part of
+it, and in consequence of the influence which philosophy and legislative
+wisdom have had in their respective provinces, there has been always, in
+all times and countries, a counteracting energy, which has opposed
+itself, more or less, to the crimes and miseries of mankind. But it
+seems to have been reserved for Christianity to increase this energy,
+and to give it the widest possible domain. It was reserved for her,
+under the same divine influence, to give the best views of the nature
+and of the present and future condition of man; to afford the best moral
+precepts, to communicate the most benign stimulus to the heart, to
+produce the most blameless conduct, and thus to cut off many of the
+causes of wretchedness, and to heal it wherever it was found. At her
+command, wherever she has been duly acknowledged, many of the evils of
+life have already fled. The prisoner of war is no longer led into the
+amphitheatre to become a gladiator, and to imbrue his hands in the blood
+of his fellow-captive for the sport of a thoughtless multitude. The
+stern priest, cruel through fanaticism and custom, no longer leads his
+fellow-creature to the altar to sacrifice him to fictitious gods. The
+venerable martyr, courageous through faith and the sanctity of his life,
+is no longer hurried to the flames. The haggard witch, poring over her
+incantations by moon-light, no longer scatters her superstitious poison
+among her miserable neighbours, nor suffers for her crime.
+
+But in whatever way Christianity may have operated towards the increase
+of this energy, or towards a diminution of human misery, it has operated
+in none more powerfully than by the new views and consequent duties,
+which it introduced on the subject of charity, or practical benevolence
+and love. Men in ancient times looked upon their talents, of whatever
+description, as, their own, which they might use, or cease to use at
+their discretion. But the Author of our religion was the first who
+taught that, however in a legal point of view, the talent of individuals
+might belong exclusively to themselves, so that no other person had a
+right to demand the use of it by force, yet in the Christian
+dispensation they were but the stewards of it for good; that so much was
+expected from this stewardship, that it was difficult for those who were
+intrusted with it to enter into his spiritual kingdom; that these had no
+right to conceal their talent in a napkin, but that they were bound to
+dispense a portion of it to the relief of their fellow-creatures; and
+that, in proportion to the magnitude of it, they were accountable for
+the extensiveness of its use. He was the first who pronounced the
+misapplication of it to be a crime, and to be a crime of no ordinary
+dimensions. He was the first who broke down the boundary between Jew and
+Gentile, and, therefore, the first who pointed out to men the
+inhabitants of other countries, for the exercise of their philanthropy
+and love. Hence a distinction is to be made both in the principle and
+practice of charity, as existing in ancient or in modern times. Though
+the old philosophers, historians, and poets, frequently inculcated
+benevolence, we have no reason to conclude from any facts they have left
+us, that persons in their days did anything more than occasionally
+relieve an unfortunate object, who might present himself before them, or
+that, however they might deplore the existence of public evils among
+them, they joined in associations for their suppression, or that they
+carried their charity, as bodies of men, into other kingdoms. To
+Christianity alone we are indebted for the new and sublime spectacle, of
+seeing men going beyond the bounds of individual usefulness to each
+other; of seeing them associate for the extirpation of private and
+public misery; and of seeing them carry their charity, as a united
+brotherhood, into distant lands. And in this wider field of benevolence
+it would be unjust not to confess, that no country has shone with more
+true lustre than our own, there being scarcely any case of acknowledged
+affliction, for which some of her Christian children have not united in
+an attempt to provide relief.
+
+Among the evils corrected or subdued, either by the general influence of
+Christianity on the minds of men, or by particular associations of
+Christians, the African[A]. Slave Trade appears to me to have occupied
+the foremost place. The abolition of it, therefore, of which it has
+devolved upon me to write the history, should be accounted as one of the
+greatest blessings, and as such should be one of the most copious
+sources of our joy: indeed, I know of no evil, the removal of which
+should excite in us a higher degree of pleasure. For, in considerations
+of this kind, are we not usually influenced by circumstances? Are not
+our feelings usually affected according to the situation, or the
+magnitude, or the importance of these? Are they not more or less
+elevated, as the evil under our contemplation has been more or less
+productive of misery, or more or less productive of guilt? Are they not
+more or less elevated again, as we have found it more or less
+considerable in extent? Our sensations will undoubtedly be in proportion
+to such circumstances, or our joy to the appreciation or mensuration of
+the evil which has been removed.
+
+[Footnote A: Slavery had been before annihilated by Christianity; I mean
+in the West of Europe, at the close of the twelfth century]
+
+To value the blessing of the abolition as we ought, or to appreciate the
+joy and gratitude which we ought to feel concerning it, we must enter a
+little into the circumstances of the trade. Our statement, however, of
+these needs not be long: a few pages will do all that is necessary! A
+glance only into such a subject as this will be sufficient to affect the
+heart,--to arouse our indignation and our pity,--and to teach us the
+importance of the victory obtained.
+
+The first subject for consideration, towards enabling us to make the
+estimate in question, will be that of the nature of the evil belonging
+to the Slave Trade. This may be seen by examining it in three points of
+view. First, as it has been proved to arise on the Continent of Africa,
+in the course of reducing the inhabitants of it to slavery. Secondly, in
+the course of conveying them from thence to the lands or colonies of
+other nations. And, thirdly, in continuing them there as slaves.
+
+To see it, as it has been shown, to arise in the first case, let us
+suppose ourselves on the Continent just mentioned. Well then, We are
+landed,--We are already upon our travels,--We have just passed through
+one forest,--We are now come to a more open place, which indicates an
+approach to habitation. And what object is that which first obtrudes
+itself upon our sight? Who is that wretched woman whom we discover under
+that noble tree, wringing her hands, and beating her breast, as if in
+the agonies of despair? Three days has she been there, at intervals, to
+look and to watch; and this is the fourth morning, and no tidings of her
+children yet. Beneath its spreading boughs they were accustomed to play:
+but, alas! the savage man-stealer interrupted their playful mirth, and
+has taken them for ever from her sight.
+
+But let us leave the cries of this unfortunate woman, and hasten into
+another district. And what do we first see here? Who is he that just now
+started across the narrow pathway, as if afraid of a human face? What is
+that sudden rustling among the leaves? Why are those persons flying from
+our approach, and hiding themselves in yon darkest thicket? Behold, as
+we get into the plain, a deserted village! The rice-field has been just
+trodden down around it; an aged man,--venerable by his silver
+beard,--lies wounded and dying near the threshold of his hut. War,
+suddenly instigated by avarice, has just visited the dwellings which we
+see. The old have been butchered, because unfit for slavery, and the
+young have been carried off, except such as have fallen in the conflict,
+or have escaped among the woods behind us.
+
+But let us hasten from this cruel scene, which gives rise to so many
+melancholy reflections. Let us cross yon distant river, and enter into
+some new domain. But are we relieved even here from afflicting
+spectacles? Look at that immense crowd which appears to be gathered in a
+ring. See the accused innocent in the middle! The ordeal of poisonous
+water has been administered to him, as a test of his innocence or his
+guilt: he begins to be sick and pale. Alas! yon mournful shriek of his
+relatives confirms that the loss of his freedom is now sealed.
+
+And whither shall we go now? the night is approaching fast. Let us find
+some friendly hut, where sleep may make us forget for a while the
+sorrows of the day. Behold a hospitable native ready to receive us at
+his door! let us avail ourselves of his kindness. And now let its give
+ourselves to repose. But why, when our eyelids are but just closed, do
+we find ourselves thus suddenly awakened? What is the meaning of the
+noise around us, of the trampling of people's feet, of the rustling of
+the bow, the quiver, and the lance? Let us rise up and inquire. Behold!
+the inhabitants are all alarmed! a wakeful woman has shown them yon
+distant column of smoke and blaze. The neighbouring village is on fire:
+the prince, unfaithful to the sacred duty of the protection of his
+subjects, has surrounded them. He is now burning their habitations, and
+seizing, as saleable booty, the fugitives from the flames.
+
+Such then are some of the scenes that have been passing in Africa, in
+consequence, of the existence of the Slave Trade; or such is the nature
+of the evil, as it has shown itself in the first of the cases we have
+noticed. Let us now estimate it as it has been proved to exist in the
+second; or let us examine the state of the unhappy Africans reduced to
+slavery in this manner, while on board the vessels, which are to convey
+them across the ocean to other lands. And here I must observe at once,
+that, as far as this part of the evil is concerned, I am at a loss to
+describe it. Where shall I find words to express properly their sorrow,
+as arising from the reflection of being parted for ever from their
+friends, their relatives, and their country? Where shall I find language
+to paint, in appropriate colours, the horror of mind brought on by
+thoughts of their future unknown destination, of which they can augur
+nothing but misery from all that they have yet seen? How shall I make
+known their situation, while labouring, under painful disease, or while
+struggling in the suffocating holds of their prisons, like animals
+enclosed in an exhausted receiver? How shall I describe their feelings
+as exposed to all the personal indignities, which lawless appetite or
+brutal passion may suggest? How shall I exhibit their sufferings as
+determining to refuse sustenance and die, or as resolving to break their
+chains, and, disdaining to live as slaves, to punish their oppressors?
+How shall I give an idea of their agony when under various punishments
+and tortures for their reputed crimes? Indeed, every part of this
+subject defies my powers, and I must, therefore, satisfy myself and the
+reader with a general representation, or in the words of a celebrated
+member of Parliament, that "Never was so much human suffering condensed
+in so small a space."
+
+I come now to the evil, as it has been proved to arise in the third
+case; or to consider the situation of the unhappy victims of the trade,
+when their painful voyages are over, or after they have been landed upon
+their destined shores. And here we are to view them, first under the
+degrading light of cattle: we are to see them examined, handled,
+selected, separated, and sold. Alas! relatives are separated from
+relatives, as if, like cattle, they had no rational intellect, no power
+of feeling the nearness of relationship, nor sense of the duties
+belonging to the ties of life! We are next to see them labouring; and
+this for the benefit of those to whom they are under no obligation, by
+any law either natural or divine, to obey. We are to see them, if
+refusing the commands of their purchasers, however weary, or feeble, or
+indisposed, subject to corporal punishments, and if forcibly resisting
+them to death: we are to see them in a state of general degradation and
+misery. The knowledge which their oppressors have of their own crime, in
+having violated the rights of nature, and of the disposition of the
+injured to seek all opportunities of revenge, produces a fear which
+dictates to them the necessity of a system of treatment, by which they
+shall keep up a wide distinction between the two, and by which the noble
+feelings of the latter shall be kept down, and their spirits broken. We
+are to see them again subject to individual persecution, as anger, or
+malice, or any bad passion may suggest: hence the whip, the chain, the
+iron-collar! hence the various modes of private torture, of which so
+many accounts have been truly given. Nor can such horrible cruelties be
+discovered so as to be made punishable, while the testimony of any
+number of the oppressed is invalid against the oppressors, however they
+may be offences against the laws. And, lastly, we are to see their
+innocent offspring, against whose personal liberty the shadow of an
+argument cannot be advanced, inheriting all the miseries of their
+parents' lot.
+
+The evil then, as far as it has been hitherto viewed, presents to us, in
+its three several departments, a measure of human suffering not to be
+equalled--not to be calculated--not to be described. But would that we
+could consider this part of the subject as dismissed! would that in each
+of the departments now examined there was no counterpart left us to
+contemplate! But this cannot be; for if there be persons who suffer
+unjustly there must be others who oppress: and if there be those who
+oppress, there must be to the suffering, which has been occasioned, a
+corresponding portion of immorality or guilt.
+
+We are obliged then to view the counterpart of the evil in question,
+before we can make a proper estimate of the nature of it. And, in
+examining this part of it, we shall find that we have a no less
+frightful picture to behold than in the former cases; or that, while the
+miseries endured by the unfortunate Africans excite our pity on the one
+hand, the vices, which are connected with them, provoke our indignation
+and abhorrence on the other. The Slave Trade, in this point of view,
+must strike us as an immense mass of evil on account of the criminality
+attached to it, as displayed in the various branches of it, which have
+already been examined. For, to take the counterpart of the evil in the
+first of these, can we say that no moral turpitude is to be placed to
+the account of those, who, living on the continent of Africa, give birth
+to the enormities, which take place in consequence of the prosecution of
+this trade? Is not that man made morally worse, who is induced to become
+a tiger to his species, or who, instigated by avarice, lies in wait in
+the thicket to get possession of his fellow-man? Is no injustice
+manifest in the land, where the prince, unfaithful to his duty, seizes
+his innocent subjects, and sells them for slaves? Are no moral evils
+produced among those communities, which make war upon other communities
+for the sake of plunder, and without any previous provocation or
+offence? Does no crime attach to those, who accuse others falsely, or
+who multiply and divide crimes for the sake of the profit of the
+punishment, and who for the same reason continue the use of barbarous
+and absurd ordeals as a test of innocence or guilt?
+
+In the second of these branches, the counterpart of the evil is to be
+seen in the conduct of those who purchase the miserable natives in their
+own country, and convey them to distant lands. And here questions,
+similar to the former, may be asked. Do they experience no corruption of
+their nature, or become chargeable with no violation of right, who, when
+they go with their ships to this continent, know the enormities which
+their visits there will occasion, who buy their fellow-creature man, and
+this, knowing the way in which he comes into their hands, and who chain,
+and imprison, and scourge him? Do the moral feelings of those persons
+escape without injury, whose hearts are hardened? And can the hearts of
+those be otherwise than hardened, who are familiar with the tears and
+groans of innocent strangers forcibly torn away from every thing that is
+dear to them in life, who are accustomed to see them on board their
+vessels in a state of suffocation and in the agonies of despair, and who
+are themselves in the habit of the cruel use of arbitrary power?
+
+The counterpart of the evil in its third branch is to be seen in the
+conduct of those, who, when these miserable people have been landed,
+purchase and carry them to their respective homes. And let us see
+whether a mass of wickedness is not generated also in the present case.
+Can those have nothing to answer for, who separate the faithful ties
+which nature and religion have created? Can their feelings be otherwise
+than corrupted, who consider their fellow-creatures as brutes, or treat
+those as cattle, who may become the temples of the Holy Spirit, and in
+whom the Divinity disdains not himself to dwell? Is there no injustice
+in forcing men to labour without wages? Is there no breach of duty, when
+we are commanded to clothe the naked, and feed the hungry, and visit the
+sick and in prison, in exposing them to want, in torturing them by cruel
+punishment, and in grinding them down by hard labour, so as to shorten
+their days? Is there no crime in adopting a system, which keeps down all
+the noble faculties of their souls, and which positively debases and
+corrupts their nature? Is there no crime in perpetuating these evils
+among their innocent offspring? And finally, besides all these crimes,
+is there not naturally in the familiar sight of the exercise, but more
+especially in the exercise itself, of uncontrolled power, that which
+vitiates the internal man? In seeing misery stalk daily over the land,
+do not all become insensibly hardened? By giving birth to that misery
+themselves, do they not become abandoned? In what state of society are
+the corrupt appetites so easily, so quickly, and so frequently indulged,
+and where else, by means of frequent indulgence, do these experience
+such a monstrous growth? Where else is the temper subject to such
+frequent irritation, or passion to such little control? Yes--if the
+unhappy slave is in an unfortunate situation, so is the tyrant who holds
+him. Action and reaction are equal to each other, as well in the moral
+as in the natural world. You cannot exercise an improper dominion over a
+fellow-creature, but by a wise ordering of Providence you must
+necessarily injure yourself.
+
+Having now considered the nature of the evil of the Slave Trade in its
+three separate departments of suffering, and in its corresponding
+counterparts of guilt, I shall make a few observations on the extent of
+it.
+
+On this subject it must strike us, that the misery and the crimes
+included in the evil, as it has been found in Africa, were not like
+common maladies, which make a short or periodical visit and then are
+gone, but that they were continued daily. Nor were they like diseases,
+which from local causes attack a village or a town, and by the skill of
+the physician, under the blessing of Providence, are removed; but they
+affected a whole continent. The trade with all its horrors began at the
+river Senegal, and continued, winding with the coast, through its
+several geographical divisions to Cape Negro; a distance of more than
+three thousand miles. In various lines or paths formed at right angles
+from the shore, and passing into the heart of the country, slaves were
+procured and brought down. The distance, which many of them travelled,
+was immense. Those, who have been in Africa, have assured us, that they
+came as far as from the sources of their largest rivers, which we know
+to be many hundred miles inland, and the natives have told us, in their
+way of computation, that they came a journey of many moons.
+
+It must strike us again, that the misery and the crimes, included in the
+evil, as it has been shown in the transportation, had no ordinary
+bounds. They were not to be seen in the crossing of a river, but of an
+ocean. They did not begin in the morning and end at night, but were
+continued for many weeks, and sometimes by casualties for a quarter of
+the year. They were not limited to the precincts of a solitary ship, but
+were spread among many vessels; and these were so constantly passing,
+that the ocean itself never ceased to be a witness of their existence.
+
+And it must strike us, finally, that the misery and crimes, included in
+the evil as it has been found in foreign lands, were not confined within
+the shores of a little island. Most of the islands of a continent, and
+many of these of considerable population and extent, were filled with
+them. And the continent itself, to which these geographically belong,
+was widely polluted by their domain. Hence, if we were to take the vast
+extent of space occupied by these crimes and sufferings from the heart
+of Africa to its shores, and that which they filled on the continent of
+America and the islands adjacent, and were to join the crimes and
+sufferings in one to those in the other, by the crimes and sufferings
+which took place in the track of the vessels successively crossing the
+Atlantic, we should behold a vast belt as it were of physical and moral
+evil, reaching through land and ocean to the length of nearly half the
+circle of the globe.
+
+The next view which I shall take of this evil will be as it relates to
+the difficulty of subduing it.
+
+This difficulty may be supposed to have been more than ordinarily great.
+Many evils of a public nature, which existed in former times, were the
+offspring of ignorance and superstition, and they were subdued of course
+by the progress of light and knowledge. But the evil in question began
+in avarice. It was nursed also by worldly interest. It did not therefore
+so easily yield to the usual correctives of disorders in the world. We
+may observe also, that the interest by which it was thus supported, was
+not that of a few individuals, nor of one body, but of many bodies of
+men. It was interwoven again into the system of the commerce and of the
+revenue of nations. Hence the merchant--the planter--the mortgagee--the
+manufacturer--the politician--the legislator--the
+cabinet-minister--lifted up their voices against the annihilation of it.
+For these reasons, the Slave Trade may be considered like the fabulous
+hydra, to have a hundred heads, every one of which it was necessary to
+cut off before it could be subdued. And as none but Hercules was fitted
+to conquer the one, so nothing less than extraordinary prudence,
+courage, labour, and patience, could overcome the other. To protection
+in this manner by his hundred interests, it was owing, that the monster
+stalked in security for so long a time. He stalked too in the open day,
+committing his mighty depredations. And when good men, whose duty it was
+to mark him as the object of their destruction, began to assail him, he
+did not fly, but gnashed his teeth at them, growling savagely at the
+same time, and putting himself into a posture of defiance.
+
+We see then, in whatever light we consider the Slave Trade, whether we
+examine into the nature of it, or whether we look into the extent of it,
+or whether we estimate the difficulty of subduing it, we must conclude
+that no evil more monstrous has ever existed upon earth. But if so, then
+we have proved the truth of the position, that the abolition of it ought
+to be accounted by us as one of the greatest blessings, and that it
+ought to be one of the most copious sources of our joy. Indeed, I do not
+know, how we can sufficiently express what we ought to feel upon this
+occasion. It becomes us, as individuals, to rejoice. It becomes us, as a
+nation, to rejoice. It becomes us even to perpetuate our joy to our
+posterity. I do not mean, however, by anniversaries, which are to be
+celebrated by the ringing of bells and convivial meetings, but by
+handing down this great event so impressively to our children, as to
+raise in them, if not continual, yet frequently renewed thanksgivings,
+to the great Creator of the universe, for the manifestation of this his
+favour, in having disposed our legislators to take away such a portion
+of suffering from our fellow-creatures, and such a load of guilt from
+our native land.
+
+And as the contemplation of the removal of this monstrous evil should
+excite in us the most pleasing and grateful sensations, so the perusal
+of the history of it should afford us lessons, which it must be useful
+to us to know or to be reminded of. For it cannot be otherwise than
+useful to us to know the means which have been used, and the different
+persons who have moved in so great a cause. It cannot be otherwise than
+useful to us to be impressively reminded of the simple axiom which the
+perusal of this history will particularly suggest to us, that "the
+greatest works must have a beginning;" because the fostering of such an
+idea in our minds cannot but encourage us to undertake the removal of
+evils, however vast they may appear in their size, or however difficult
+to overcome. It cannot, again, be otherwise than useful to us to be
+assured, (and this history will assure us of it,) that in any work,
+which is a work of righteousness, however small the beginning may be, or
+however small the progress may be that we may make in it, we ought never
+to despair; for that, whatever checks and discouragements we may meet
+with, "no virtuous effort is ever ultimately lost." And finally, it
+cannot be otherwise than useful to us, to form the opinion, which the
+contemplation of this subject must always produce, namely, that many of
+the evils which are still left among us, may, by an union of wise and
+virtuous individuals, be greatly alleviated, if not entirely done away;
+for if the great evil of the Slave Trade, so deeply entrenched by its
+hundred interests, has fallen prostrate before the efforts of those who
+attacked it, what evil of a less magnitude shall not be more easily
+subdued? O may reflections of this sort always enliven us, always
+encourage us, always stimulate us to our duty! May we never cease to
+believe, that many of the miseries of life are still to be remedied, or
+to rejoice that we may be permitted, if we will only make ourselves
+worthy by our endeavours, to heal them! May we encourage for this
+purpose every generous sympathy that arises in our hearts, as the
+offspring of the Divine influence for our good, convinced that we are
+not born for ourselves alone, and that the Divinity never so fully
+dwells in us, as when we do his will, and that we never do his will more
+agreeably, as far as it has been revealed to us, than when we employ our
+time in works of charity towards the rest of our fellow-creatures!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+As it is desirable to know the true sources of events in history, so
+this will be realized in that of the abolition of the Slave
+Trade.--Inquiry as to those who favoured the cause of the Africans
+previously to the year 1787.--All these to be considered as necessary
+forerunners in that cause.--First forerunners were Cardinal Ximenes;
+the Emperor Charles the Fifth; Pope Leo the Tenth; Elizabeth, queen of
+England; Louis the Thirteenth, of France.
+
+
+It would be considered by many, who have stood at the mouth of a river,
+and witnessed its torrent there, to be both an interesting and a
+pleasing journey to go to the fountain head, and then to travel on its
+banks downwards, and to mark the different streams in each side, which
+should run into it and feed it. So I presume the reader will not be a
+little interested and entertained, in viewing with me the course of the
+abolition of the Slave Trade, in first finding its source, and then in
+tracing the different springs which have contributed to its increase.
+And here I may observe that, in doing this, we shall have advantages,
+which historians have not always had in developing the causes of things.
+Many have handed down to us, events, for the production of which they
+have given us but their own conjectures. There has been often, indeed,
+such a distance between the events themselves, and the lives of those
+who have recorded them, that the different means and motives belonging
+to them have been lost through time. On the present occasion, however,
+we shall have the peculiar satisfaction of knowing, that we communicate
+the truth, or that those which we unfold, are the true causes and means;
+for the most remote of all the human springs, which can be traced as
+having any bearing upon the great event in question, will fall within
+the period of three centuries, and the most powerful of them within the
+last twenty years. These circumstances indeed have had their share in
+inducing me to engage in the present history. Had I measured it by the
+importance of the subject, I had been deterred; but believing that most
+readers love the truth, and that it ought to be the object of all
+writers to promote it, and believing, moreover, that I was in possession
+of more facts on this subject than any other person, I thought I was
+peculiarly called to undertake it.
+
+In tracing the different streams from whence the torrent arose, which
+has now happily swept away the Slave Trade, I must begin with an inquiry
+as to those who favoured the cause of the injured Africans, from the
+year 1516, to the year 1787, at which latter period, a number of persons
+associated themselves, in England, for its abolition. For though they,
+who belonged to this association, may, in consequence of having pursued
+a regular system, be called the principal actors, yet it must be
+acknowledged, that their efforts would never have been so effectual, if
+the minds of men had not been prepared by others, who had moved before
+them. Great events have never taken place without previously disposing
+causes. So it is in the case before us. Hence they, who lived even in
+early times, and favoured this great cause, may be said to have been
+necessary precursors in it. And here it may be proper to observe, that
+it is by no means necessary that all these should have been themselves
+actors in the production of this great event. Persons have contributed
+towards it in different ways:--Some have written expressly on the
+subject, who have had no opportunity of promoting it by personal
+exertions. Others have only mentioned it incidentally in their writings.
+Others, in an elevated rank and station, have cried out publicly
+concerning it, whose sayings have been recorded. All these, however, may
+be considered as necessary forerunners in their day; for all of them
+have brought the subject more or less into notice. They have more or
+less enlightened the mind upon it; they have more or less impressed it;
+and therefore each may be said to have had his share in diffusing and
+keeping up a certain portion of knowledge and feeling concerning it,
+which has been eminently useful in the promotion of the cause.
+
+It is rather remarkable, that the first forerunners and coadjutors
+should have been men in power.
+
+So early as in the year 1503, a few slaves had been sent from the
+Portuguese settlements in Africa into the Spanish colonies in America.
+In 1511, Ferdinand the Fifth, king of Spain, permitted them to be
+carried in great numbers. Ferdinand, however, must have been ignorant in
+these early times of the piratical manner in which the Portuguese had
+procured them. He could have known nothing of their treatment when in
+bondage, nor could he have viewed the few uncertain adventurous
+transportations of them into his dominions in the western world, in the
+light of a regular trade. After his death, however; a proposal was made
+by Bartholomew de las Casas, the bishop of Chiapa, to Cardinal Ximenes,
+who held the reigns of the government of Spain till Charles the Fifth
+came to the throne, for the establishment of a regular system of
+commerce in the persons of the native Africans. The object of
+Bartholomew de las Casas was undoubtedly to save the American Indians,
+whose cruel treatment and almost extirpation he had witnessed during his
+residence among them, and in whose behalf he had undertaken a voyage to
+the court of Spain. It is difficult to reconcile this proposal with the
+humane and charitable spirit of the bishop of Chiapa. But it is probable
+he believed that a code of laws would soon be established in favour both
+of Africans and of the natives in the Spanish settlements, and that he
+flattered himself that, being about to return and to live in the country
+of their slavery, he could look to the execution of it. The cardinal,
+however, with a foresight, a benevolence, and a justice which will
+always do honour to his memory, refused the proposal, not only judging
+it to be unlawful to consign innocent people to slavery at all, but to
+be very inconsistent to deliver the inhabitants of one country from a
+state of misery by consigning to it those of another. Ximenes,
+therefore, may be considered as one of the first great friends of the
+Africans after the partial beginning of the trade.
+
+This answer of the cardinal, as it showed his virtue as an individual,
+so was it peculiarly honourable to him as a public man, and ought to
+operate as a lesson to other statesmen, how they admit any thing new
+among political regulations and establishments, which is connected in
+the smallest degree with injustice; for evil, when once sanctioned by
+governments, spreads in a tenfold degree, and may, unless seasonably
+checked, become so ramified as to effect the reputation of a country,
+and to render its own removal scarcely possible without detriment to the
+political concerns of the state. In no instance has this been verified
+more than in the case of the Slave Trade. Never was our national
+character more tarnished, and our prosperity more clouded by guilt.
+Never was there a monster more difficult to subdue. Even they, who heard
+as it were the shrieks of oppression, and wished to assist the
+sufferers, were fearful of joining in their behalf. While they
+acknowledged the necessity of removing one evil, they were terrified by
+the prospect of introducing another; and were, therefore, only able to
+relieve their feelings by, lamenting, in the bitterness of their hearts,
+that this traffic had ever been begun at all.
+
+After the death of Cardinal Ximenes, the emperor Charles the Fifth, who
+had come into power, encouraged the Slave Trade. In 1517, he granted a
+patent to one of his Flemish favourites, containing an exclusive right
+of importing four thousand Africans into America. But he lived long
+enough to repent of what he had thus inconsiderately done; for in the
+year 1542, he made a code of laws for the better protection of the
+unfortunate Indians in his foreign dominions, and he stopped the
+progress of African slavery by an order that all slaves in his American
+islands should he made free. This order was executed by Pedro de la
+Gasca. Manumission took place as well in Hispaniola as on the Continent;
+but on the return of Gasca to Spain, and the retirement of Charles into
+a monastery, slavery was revived.
+
+It is impossible to pass over this instance of the abolition of slavery
+by Charles, in all his foreign dominions, without some comments. It
+shows him, first, to have been a friend both to the Indians and the
+Africans, as a part of the human race; it shows he was ignorant of what
+he was doing when he gave his sanction to this cruel trade; it shows
+when legislators give one set of men undue power over another, how
+quickly they abuse it, or he never would have found himself obliged, in
+the short space of twenty-five years, to undo that which he had
+countenanced as a great state measure; and while it confirms the former
+lesson to statesmen of watching the beginnings or principles of things
+in their political movements, it should teach them never to persist in
+the support of evils, through the false shame of being obliged to
+confess that they had once given them their sanction, nor to delay the
+cure of them because, politically speaking, neither this nor that is the
+proper season; but to do them away instantly, as there can only be one
+fit or proper time in the eye of religion, namely, on the conviction of
+their existence.
+
+From the opinions of Cardinal Ximenes and of the emperor Charles the
+Fifth, I hasten to that which was expressed much about the same time, in
+a public capacity, by Pope Leo the Tenth. The Dominicans in Spanish
+America, witnessing the cruel treatment which the slaves underwent
+there, considered slavery as utterly repugnant to the principles of the
+gospel, and recommended the abolition of it. The Franciscans did not
+favour the former in this their scheme of benevolence; and the
+consequence was, that a controversy on this subject sprung up between
+them, which was carried to this pope for his decision. Leo exerted
+himself, much to his honour, in behalf of the poor sufferers, and
+declared "That not only the Christian religion, but that Nature herself
+cried out against a state of slavery." This answer was certainly worthy
+of one who was deemed the head of the Christian Church. It must,
+however, be confessed that it would have been strange if Leo, in his
+situation as pontiff, had made a different reply. He could never have
+denied that God was no respecter of persons. He must have acknowledged
+that men were bound to love each other as brethren; and, if he admitted
+the doctrine that all men were accountable for their actions hereafter,
+he could never have prevented the deduction that it was necessary they
+should be free. Nor could he, as a man of high attainments, living early
+in the sixteenth century, have been ignorant of what had taken place in
+the twelfth; or that, by the latter end of this latter century,
+christianity had obtained the undisputed honour of having extirpated
+slavery from the western part of the European world.
+
+From Spain and Italy I come to England. The first importation of slaves
+from Africa, by our countrymen, was in the reign of Elizabeth, in the
+year 1562. This great princess seems on the very commencement of the
+trade to have questioned its lawfulness. She seems to have entertained a
+religious scruple concerning it; and, indeed, to have revolted at the
+very thought of it. She seems to have been aware of the evils to which
+its continuance might lead, or that, if it were sanctioned, the most
+unjustifiable means might be made use of to procure the persons of the
+natives of Africa. And in what light she would have viewed any acts of
+this kind, had they taken place, we may conjecture from this fact,--that
+when Captain (afterwards Sir John) Hawkins returned from his first
+voyage to Africa and Hispaniola, whither he had carried slaves, she sent
+for him, and, as we learn from Hill's _Naval History_ expressed her
+concern lest any of the Africans should be carried off without their
+free consent, declaring that "it would be detestable, and call down the
+vengeance of heaven upon the undertakers." Captain Hawkins promised to
+comply with the injunctions of Elizabeth in this respect, but he did not
+keep his word; for when he went to Africa again, he seized many of the
+inhabitants and carried them off as slaves, which occasioned Hill, in
+the account he gives of his second voyage, to use these remarkable
+words:--"Here began the horrid practice of forcing the Africans into
+slavery, an injustice and barbarity which, so sure as there is vengeance
+in heaven for the worst of crimes, will some time be the destruction of
+all who allow or encourage it." That the trade should have been suffered
+to continue under such a princess, and after such solemn expressions as
+those which she has been described to have uttered, can be only
+attributed to the pains taken by those concerned in it to keep her
+ignorant of the truth.
+
+From England I now pass over to France. Labat, a Roman missionary, in
+his account of the isles of America, mentions that Louis the Thirteenth
+was very uneasy when he was about to issue the edict by which all
+Africans coming into his colonies were to be made slaves, and that this
+uneasiness continued till he was assured that the introduction of them
+in this capacity into his foreign dominions was the readiest way of
+converting them to the principles of the Christian religion.
+
+These, then, were the first forerunners in the great cause of the
+abolition of the Slave Trade: nor have their services towards it been of
+small moment; for, in the first place, they have enabled those who came
+after them, and who took an active interest in the same cause, to state
+the great authority of their opinions and of their example. They have
+enabled them, again, to detail the history connected with these, in
+consequence of which circumstances have been laid open which it is of
+great importance to know; for have they not enabled them to state that
+the African Slave Trade never would have been permitted to exist but for
+the ignorance of those in authority concerning it--that at its
+commencement there was a revolting of nature against it--a suspicion, a
+caution, a fear, both as to its unlawfulness and its effects? Have they
+not enabled them to state that falsehoods were advanced, and these
+concealed under the mask of religion, to deceive those who had the power
+to suppress it? Have they not enabled them to state that this trade
+began in piracy, and that it was continued upon the principles of force?
+And, finally, have not they who have been enabled to make these
+statements, knowing all the circumstances connected with them, found
+their own zeal increased, and their own courage and perseverance
+strengthened; and have they not, by the communication of them to others,
+produced many friends and even labourers in the cause?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Forerunners continued to 1787; divided from this time into four
+classes.--First class consists principally of persons in Great Britain
+of various descriptions: Godwyn; Baxter; Tryon; Southern; Primatt;
+Montesquieu; Hutcheson; Sharp; Ramsay; and a multitude of others,
+whose names and services follow.
+
+
+I have hitherto traced the history of the forerunners in this great
+cause only up to about the year 1640. If I am to pursue my plan, I am to
+trace it to the year 1787. But in order to show what I intend in a
+clearer point of view, I shall divide those who have lived within this
+period, and who will now consist of persons in a less elevated station,
+into four classes: and I shall give to each class a distinct
+consideration by itself.
+
+Several of our old English writers, though they have not mentioned the
+African Slave Trade, or the slavery consequent upon it, in their
+respective works, have yet given their testimony of condemnation against
+both. Thus our great Milton:--
+
+
+  O execrable son, so to aspire,
+  Above his brethren, to himself assuming
+  Authority usurpt, from God not given;
+  He gave us only over beast, fish, fowl,
+  Dominion absolute; that right we hold
+  By his donation; but man over men
+  He made not lord, such title to himself
+  Reserving, human left from human free.
+
+
+I might mention Bishop Saunderson and others, who bore a testimony
+equally strong against the lawfulness of trading in the persons of men,
+and of holding them in bondage; but as I mean to confine myself to those
+who have favoured the cause of the Africans specifically, I cannot admit
+their names into any of the classes which have been announced.
+
+Of those, who compose the first class, defined as it has now been, I
+cannot name any individual who took a part in this cause till between
+the years 1670 and 1680; for in the year 1640, and for a few years
+afterwards, the nature of the trade and of the slavery was but little
+known, except to a few individuals, who were concerned in them; and it
+is obvious that these would neither endanger their own interest nor
+proclaim their own guilt by exposing it. The first, whom I shall mention
+is Morgan Godwyn, a clergyman of the established church. This pious
+divine wrote a treatise upon the subject, which he dedicated to the then
+archbishop of Canterbury. He gave it to the world, at the time
+mentioned, under the title of "_The Negroes' and Indians' Advocate._" In
+this treatise he lays open the situation of these oppressed people, of
+whose sufferings he had been an eye-witness in the island of Barbados.
+He calls forth the pity of the reader in an affecting manner, and
+exposes with a nervous eloquence the brutal sentiments and conduct of
+their oppressors. This seems to have been the first work undertaken in
+England expressly in favour of the cause.
+
+The next person, whom I shall mention, is Richard Baxter, the celebrated
+divine among the nonconformists. In his _Christian Directory_, published
+about the same time as _The Negroes' and Indians' Advocate_, he gives
+advice to those masters in foreign plantations, who have negroes and
+other slaves. In this he protests loudly against this trade. He says
+expressly that they, who go out as pirates, and take away poor Africans,
+or people of another land, who never forfeited life or liberty, and make
+them slaves and sell them, are the worst of robbers, and ought to be
+considered as the common enemies of mankind; and that they who buy them,
+and use them as mere beasts for their own convenience, regardless of
+their spiritual welfare, are fitter to be called demons than christians.
+He then proposes several queries, which he answers in a clear and
+forcible manner, showing the great inconsistency of this traffic, and
+the necessity of treating those then in bondage with tenderness and a
+due regard to their spiritual concerns.
+
+The _Directory_ of Baxter was succeeded by a publication called
+_Friendly Advice to the Planters_ in three parts. The first of these
+was, _A brief Treatise of the principal Fruits and Herbs that grow in
+Barbados, Jamaica, and other Plantations in the West Indies_. The second
+was, _The Negroes' Complaint, or their hard Servitude, and the Cruelties
+practised upon them by divers of their Masters professing Christianity_.
+And the third was, _A Dialogue between an Ethiopian and a Christian, his
+Master, in America_. In the last of these, Thomas Tryon, who was the
+author, inveighs both against the commerce and the slavery of the
+Africans, and in a striking manner examines each by the touchstone of
+reason, humanity, justice, and religion.
+
+In the year 1696, Southern brought forward his celebrated tragedy of
+_Oronooko_, by means of which many became enlightened upon the subject,
+and interested in it. For this tragedy was not a representation of
+fictitious circumstances, but of such as had occurred in the colonies,
+and as had been communicated in a publication by Mrs. Behn.
+
+The person who seems to have noticed the subject next was Dr. Primatt.
+In his _Dissertation on the Duty of Mercy, and on the Sin of Cruelty to
+Brute Animals_, he takes occasion to advert to the subject of the
+African Slave Trade. "It has pleased God," says he, "to cover some men
+with white skins and others with black; but as there is neither merit
+nor demerit in complexion, the white man, notwithstanding the barbarity
+of custom and prejudice, can have no right by virtue of his colour to
+enslave and tyrannize over the black man. For whether a man be white or
+black, such he is by God's appointment, and, abstractly considered, is
+neither a subject for pride, nor an object of contempt."
+
+After Dr. Primatt, we come to Baron Montesquieu, "Slavery," says he, "is
+not good in itself. It is neither useful to the master nor to the slave;
+not to the slave, because he can do nothing from virtuous motives; not
+to the master, because he contracts among his slaves all sorts of bad
+habits, and accustoms himself to the neglect of all the moral virtues.
+He becomes haughty, passionate, obdurate, vindictive, voluptuous, and
+cruel." And with respect to this particular species of slavery, he
+proceeds to say, "It is impossible to allow the negroes are men,
+because, if we allow them to be men, it will begin to be believed that
+we ourselves are not Christians."
+
+Hutcheson, in his _System of Moral Philosophy_, endeavours to show, that
+he who detains another by force in slavery, can make no good title to
+him, and adds, "Strange that in any nation where a sense of liberty
+prevails, and where the Christian religion is professed, custom and high
+prospect of gain can so stupify the consciences of men, and all sense of
+natural justice, that they can hear such computations made about the
+value of their fellow-men and their liberty, without abhorrence and
+indignation!"
+
+Foster, in his _Discourses on Natural Religion and Social Virtue_, calls
+the slavery under our consideration "a criminal and outrageous violation
+of the natural rights of mankind." I am sorry that I have not room to
+say all that he says on this subject. Perhaps the following beautiful
+extracts may suffice:--
+
+
+    "But notwithstanding this, we ourselves, who profess to be
+    Christians, and boast of the peculiar advantages we enjoy by
+    means of an express revelation of our duty from heaven, are in
+    effect these very untaught and rude heathen countries. With all
+    our superior light, we instil into those whom we call savage and
+    barbarous, the most despicable opinion of human nature. We, to
+    the utmost of our power, weaken and dissolve the universal tie
+    that binds and unites mankind. We practise what we should
+    exclaim against as the utmost excess of cruelty and tyranny, if
+    nations of the world, differing in colour and form of government
+    from ourselves, were so possessed of empire as to be able to
+    reduce us to a state of unmerited and brutish servitude. Of
+    consequence, we sacrifice our reason, our humanity, our
+    Christianity, to an unnatural sordid gain. We teach other
+    nations to despise and trample under foot all the obligations of
+    social virtue. We take the most effectual method to prevent the
+    propagation of the Gospel, by representing it as a scheme of
+    power and barbarous oppression, and an enemy to the natural
+    privileges and rights of man."
+
+    "Perhaps all that I have now offered may be of very little
+    weight to restrain this enormity, this aggravated iniquity.
+    However, I shall still have the satisfaction of having entered
+    my private protest against a practice which, in my opinion, bids
+    that God, who is the God and Father of the Gentiles unconverted
+    to Christianity, most daring and bold defiance, and spurns at
+    all the principles both of natural and revealed religion."
+
+
+The next author is Sir Richard Steele, who, by means of the affecting
+story of Inkle and Yarico, holds up this trade again to our abhorrence.
+
+In the year 1735, Atkins, who was a surgeon in the navy, published his
+_Voyage to Guinea, Brazil, and the West Indies, in his Majesty's ships
+Swallow and Weymouth_. In this work he describes openly the manner of
+making the natives slaves, such as by kidnapping, by unjust accusations
+and trials, and by other nefarious means. He states also the cruelties
+practised upon them by the white people, and the iniquitous ways and
+dealings of the latter, and answers their argument, by which they
+insinuated that the condition of the Africans was improved by their
+transportation to other countries.
+
+From this time, the trade beginning to be better known, a multitude of
+persons of various stations and characters sprung up, who by exposing
+it, are to be mentioned among the forerunners and coadjutors in the
+cause.
+
+Pope, in his _Essay on Man_, where he endeavours to show that happiness
+in the present depends, among other things, upon the hope of a future
+state, takes an opportunity of exciting compassion in behalf of the poor
+African, while he censures the avarice and cruelty of his master:--
+
+
+  Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutored mind
+  Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
+  His soul proud Science never taught to stray
+  Far as the solar walk, or milky-way;
+  Yet simple Nature to his hope was given
+  Behind the cloud-topt hill an humbler heaven;
+  Some safer world in depth of woods embraced,
+  Some happier island in the watery waste,
+  Where slaves once more their native land behold,
+  No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold.
+
+
+Thomson also, in his _Seasons_, marks this traffic as destructive and
+cruel, introducing the well-known fact of sharks following the vessels
+employed in it:--
+
+
+  Increasing still the sorrows of those storms,
+  His jaws horrific arm'd with three-fold fate,
+  Here dwells the direful shark. Lured by the scent
+  Of steaming crowds, of rank disease, and death;
+  Behold! he rushing cuts the briny flood,
+  Swift as the gale can bear the ship along,
+  And from the partners of that cruel trade;
+  Which spoils unhappy Guinea of her sons,
+  Demands his share of prey, demands themselves.
+  The stormy fates descend: one death involves
+  Tyrants and slaves; when straight their mangled limbs
+  Crashing at once, he dyes the purple seas
+  With gore, and riots in the vengeful meal.
+
+
+Neither was Richard Savage forgetful in his poems of the _Injured
+Africans_: he warns their oppressors of a day of retribution for their
+barbarous conduct. Having personified Public Spirit, he makes her speak
+on the subject in the following manner:--
+
+
+  Let by my specious name no tyrants rise,
+  And cry, while they enslave, they civilize!
+  Know, Liberty and I are still the same
+  Congenial--ever mingling flame with flame!
+  Why must I Afric's sable children see
+  Vended for slaves, though born by nature free,
+  The nameless tortures cruel minds invent
+  Those to subject whom Nature equal meant?
+  If these you dare (although unjust success
+  Empowers you now unpunished, to oppress),
+  Revolving empire you and yours may doom--
+  (Rome all subdu'd--yet Vandals vanquish'd Rome)
+  Yes--Empire may revolt--give them the day,
+  And yoke may yoke, and blood may blood repay.
+
+
+Wallis, in his _System of the Laws of Scotland_, maintains, that
+"neither men nor governments have a right to sell those of their own
+species. Men and their liberty are neither purchaseable nor saleable."
+And, after arguing the case, he says, "This is the law of nature, which
+is obligatory on all men, at all times, and in all places.--Would not
+any of us, who should be snatched by pirates from his native land, think
+himself cruelly abused, and at all times entitled to be free? Have not
+these unfortunate Africans, who meet with the same cruel fate, the same
+right? Are they not men as well as we? And have they not the same
+sensibility? Let us not, therefore, defend or support an usage, which is
+contrary to all the laws of humanity."
+
+In the year 1750, the reverend Griffith Hughes, rector of St. Lucy, in
+Barbados, published his Natural History of that island. He took an
+opportunity, in the course of it, of laying open to the world the
+miserable situation of the poor Africans, and the waste of them by hard
+labour and other cruel means, and he had the generosity to vindicate
+their capacities from the charge, which they who held them in bondage
+brought against them, as a justification of their own wickedness in
+continuing to deprive them of the rights of men.
+
+Edmund Burke, in his account of the European settlements, (for this work
+is usually attributed to him,) complains "that the Negroes in our
+colonies endure a slavery more complete, and attended with far worse
+circumstances, than what any people in their condition suffer, in any
+other part of the world, or have suffered in any other period of time.
+Proofs of this are not wanting. The prodigious waste, which we
+experience in this unhappy part of our species, is a full and melancholy
+evidence of this truth." And he goes on to advise the planters, for the
+sake of their own interest, to behave like good men, good masters, and
+good Christians, and to impose less labour upon their slaves, and to
+give them recreation on some of the grand festivals, and to instruct
+them in religion, as certain preventives of their decrease.
+
+An anonymous author of a pamphlet, entitled, _An Essay in Vindication of
+the Continental Colonies of America_, seems to have come forward next.
+Speaking of slavery there, he says, "It is shocking to humanity,
+violative of every generous sentiment, abhorrent utterly from the
+Christian religion.--There cannot be a more dangerous maxim than that
+necessity is a plea for injustice, for who shall fix the degree of this
+necessity? What villain so atrocious, who may not urge this excuse, or,
+as Milton has happily expressed it,
+
+  And with necessity,
+  The tyrant's plea, excuse his devilish deed?
+
+
+"That our colonies," he continues, "want people, is a very weak argument
+for so inhuman a violation of justice.--Shall a civilized, a Christian
+nation encourage slavery, because the barbarous, savage, lawless African
+hath done it? To what end do we profess a religion whose dictates we so
+flagrantly violate? Wherefore have we that pattern of goodness and
+humanity, if we refuse to follow it? How long shall we continue a
+practice which policy rejects, justice condemns, and piety revolts at?"
+
+The poet Shenstone, who comes next in order, seems to have written an
+elegy on purpose to stigmatize this trade. Of this elegy I shall copy
+only the following parts:--
+
+
+  See the poor native quit the Libyan shores,
+  Ah! not in love's delightful fetters bound!
+  No radiant smile his dying peace restores,
+  No love, nor fame, nor friendship, heals his wound.
+
+  Let vacant bards display their boasted woes;
+  Shall I the mockery of grief display?
+  No; let the muse his piercing pangs disclose,
+  Who bleeds and weeps his sum of life away!
+
+  On the wild heath in mournful guise he stood,
+  Ere the shrill boatswain gave the hated sign;
+  He dropt a tear unseen into the flood,
+  He stole one secret moment to repine--
+
+  "Why am I ravish'd from my native strand?
+  What savage race protects this impious gain?
+  Shall foreign plagues infest this teeming land,
+  And more than sea-born monsters plough the main?
+
+  Here the dire locusts' horrid swarms prevail;
+  Here the blue asps with livid poison swell;
+  Here the dry dipsa writhes his sinuous mail;
+  Can we not here secure from envy dwell?
+
+  When the grim lion urged his cruel chase,
+  When the stern panther sought his midnight prey;
+  What fate reserved me for this Christian race?
+  O race more polished, more severe than they!
+
+  Yet shores there are, bless'd shores for us remain,
+  And favour'd isles, with golden fruitage crown'd,
+  Where tufted flow'rets paint the verdant plain,
+  And every breeze shall medicine every wound."
+
+
+In the year 1755, Dr. Hayter, bishop of Norwich, preached a sermon
+before the _Society for the Propagation of the Gospel_, in which he bore
+his testimony against the continuance of this trade.
+
+Dyer, in his poem called _The Fleece_, expresses his sorrow on account
+of this barbarous trade, and looks forward to a day of retributive
+justice on account of the introduction of such an evil.
+
+In the year 1760, a pamphlet appeared, entitled, _Two Dialogues on the
+Man-trade_, by John Philmore. This name is supposed to be an assumed
+one. The author, however, discovers himself to have been both an able
+and a zealous advocate in favour of the African race.
+
+Malachi Postlethwaite, in his _Universal Dictionary of Trade and
+Commerce_, proposes a number of queries on the subject of the Slave
+Trade. I have not room to insert them at full length, but I shall give
+the following as the substance of some of them to the reader: "Whether
+this commerce be not the cause of incessant wars among the
+Africans--Whether the Africans, if it were abolished, might not become
+as ingenious, as humane, as industrious, and as capable of arts,
+manufactures, and trades, as even the bulk of Europeans--Whether, if it
+were abolished, a much more profitable trade might not be substituted,
+and this to the very centre of their extended country, instead of the
+trifling portion which now subsists upon their coasts--And whether the
+great hindrance to such a new and advantageous commerce has not wholly
+proceeded from that unjust, inhuman, unchristianlike traffic, called the
+Slave Trade, which is carried on by the Europeans." The public proposal
+of these and other queries by a man of so great commercial knowledge as
+Postlethwaite, and by one who was himself a member of the African
+Committee, was of great service in exposing the impolicy as well as
+immorality of the Slave Trade.
+
+In the year 1761, Thomas Jeffery published an account of a part of North
+America, in which he lays open the miserable state of the slaves in the
+West Indies, both as to their clothing, their food, their labour, and
+their punishments. But, without going into particulars, the general
+account be gives of them is affecting: "It is impossible," he says, "for
+a human heart to reflect upon the slavery of these dregs of mankind,
+without in some measure feeling for their misery, which ends but with
+their lives--nothing can be more wretched than the condition of this
+people."
+
+Sterne, in his account of the Negro girl in his _Life of Tristram
+Shandy_, took decidedly the part of the oppressed Africans. The
+pathetic, witty, and sentimental manner, in which he handled this
+subject, occasioned many to remember it, and procured a certain portion
+of feeling in their favour.
+
+Rousseau contributed not a little in his day to the same end.
+
+Bishop Warburton, preached a sermon in the year 1766, before the Society
+for the Propagation of the Gospel, in which he took up the cause of the
+miserable Africans, and in which he severely reprobated their
+oppressors. The language in this sermon is so striking, that I shall
+make an extract from it. "From the free savages," says he, "I now come
+to the savages in bonds. By these I mean the vast multitudes yearly
+stolen from the opposite continent, and sacrificed by the colonists to
+their great idol, the god of gain. But what then say these sincere
+worshippers of Mammon? They are our own property which we offer
+up,--Gracious God! to talk, as of herds of cattle, of property in
+rational creatures, creatures endued with all our faculties, possessing
+all our qualities but that of colour, our brethren both by nature and
+grace, shocks all the feelings of humanity, and the dictates of common
+sense? But, alas! what is there, in the infinite abuses of society,
+which does not shock them! Yet nothing is more certain in itself and
+apparent to all, than that the infamous traffic for slaves directly
+infringes both divine and human law. Nature created man free, and grace
+invites him to assert his freedom.
+
+"In excuse of this violation it hath been pretended, that though,
+indeed, these miserable outcasts of humanity be torn from their homes
+and native country by fraud and violence, yet they thereby become the
+happier, and their condition the more eligible. But who are you, who
+pretend to judge of another man's happiness; that state which each man
+under the guidance of his Maker forms for himself, and not one man for
+another? To know what constitutes mine or your happiness is the sole
+prerogative of him who created us, and cast us in so various and
+different moulds. Did your slaves ever complain to you of their
+unhappiness amidst their native woods and deserts? or rather let me ask,
+did they ever cease complaining of their condition under you their
+lordly masters, where they see, indeed, the accommodations of civil
+life, but see them all pass to others, themselves unbenefited by them?
+Be so gracious then, ye petty tyrants over human freedom, to let your
+slaves judge for themselves, what it is which makes their own happiness,
+and then see whether they do not place it in the return to their own
+country, rather than in the contemplation of your grandeur, of which
+their misery makes so large a part; a return so passionately longed for,
+that, despairing of happiness here, that is, of escaping the chains of
+their cruel task-masters, they console themselves with feigning it to be
+the gracious reward of heaven in their future state."
+
+About this time certain cruel and wicked practices, which must now be
+mentioned, had arrived at such a height, and had become so frequent in
+the metropolis, as to produce of themselves other coadjutors to the
+cause.
+
+Before the year 1700, planters, merchants, and others, resident in the
+West Indies, but coming to England, were accustomed to bring with them
+certain slaves to act as servants with them during their stay. The
+latter, seeing the freedom and the happiness of servants in this
+country, and considering what would be their own hard fate on their
+return to the islands, frequently absconded. Their masters of course
+made search after them, and often had them seized and carried away by
+force. It was, however, thrown out by many on these occasions, that the
+English laws did not sanction such proceedings, for that all persons who
+were baptized became free. The consequence of this was, that most of the
+slaves, who came over with their masters, prevailed upon some pious
+clergyman to baptize them. They took of course godfathers of such
+citizens as had the generosity to espouse their cause. When they were
+seized they usually sent to these, if they had an opportunity, for their
+protection. And in the result, their godfathers, maintaining that they
+had been baptized, and that they were free on this account as well as by
+the general tenour of the law of England, dared those who had taken
+possession of them to send them out of the kingdom.
+
+The planters, merchants, and others, being thus circumstanced, knew not
+what to do. They were afraid of taking their slaves away by force, and
+they were equally afraid of bringing any of the cases before a public
+court. In this dilemma, in 1729, they applied to York and Talbot, the
+attorney and solicitor-general for the time being, and obtained the
+following strange opinion from them:--"We are of opinion, that a slave
+by coming from the West Indies into Great Britain or Ireland, either
+with or without his master, does not become free, and that his master's
+right and property in him is not thereby determined or varied, and that
+baptism doth not bestow freedom on him, nor make any alteration in his
+temporal condition in these kingdoms. We are also of opinion, that the
+master may legally compel him to return again to the plantations."
+
+This cruel and illegal opinion was delivered in the year 1729. The
+planters, merchants, and others, gave it of course all the publicity in
+their power. And the consequences were as might easily have been
+apprehended. In a little time slaves absconding were advertised in the
+London papers as runaways, and rewards offered for the apprehension of
+them, in the same brutal manner as we find them advertised in the land
+of slavery. They were advertised also, in the same papers, to be sold by
+auction, sometimes by themselves, and at others with horses, chaises,
+and harness? They were seized also by their masters, or by persons
+employed by them, in the very streets, and dragged from thence to the
+ships; and so unprotected now were these poor slaves, that persons in
+nowise concerned with them began to institute a trade in their persons,
+making agreements with captains of ships going to the West Indies to put
+them on board at a certain price. This last instance shows how far human
+nature is capable of going, and is an answer to those persons who have
+denied that kidnapping in Africa was a source of supplying the Slave
+Trade. It shows, as all history does from the time of Joseph, that where
+there is a market for the persons of human beings, all kinds of
+enormities will be practised to obtain them.
+
+These circumstances then, as I observed before, did not fail of
+producing new coadjutors in the cause. And first they produced that able
+and indefatigable advocate, Mr. Granville Sharp. This gentleman is to be
+distinguished from those who preceded him by this particular, that,
+whereas these were only writers, he was both a writer and an actor in
+the cause. In fact, he was the first labourer in it in England. By the
+words "actor" and "labourer," I mean that he determined upon a plan of
+action in behalf of the oppressed Africans, to the accomplishment of
+which he devoted a considerable portion of his time, talents, and
+substance. What Mr. Sharp has done to merit the title of coadjutor in
+this high sense, I shall now explain. The following is a short history
+of the beginning and of the course of his labours:--
+
+In the year 1765, Mr. David Lisle had brought over from Barbados
+Jonathan Strong, an African slave, as his servant. He used the latter in
+a barbarous manner at his lodgings in Wapping, but particularly by
+beating him over the head with a pistol, which occasioned his head to
+swell. When the swelling went down, a disorder fell into his eyes, which
+threatened the loss of them. To this an ague and fever succeeded, and a
+lameness in both his legs.
+
+Jonathan Strong, having been brought into this deplorable situation, and
+being therefore wholly useless, was left by his master to go whither he
+pleased. He applied accordingly to Mr. William Sharp, the surgeon, for
+his advice, as to one who gave up a portion of his time to the healing
+of the diseases of the poor. It was here that Mr. Granville Sharp, the
+brother of the former, saw him. Suffice it to say, that in process of
+time he was cured. During this time Mr. Granville Sharp, pitying his
+hard case, supplied him with money, and he afterwards got him a
+situation in the family of Mr. Brown, an apothecary, to carry out
+medicines.
+
+In this new situation, when Strong had become healthy and robust in his
+appearance, his master happened to see him. The latter immediately
+formed the design of possessing him again. According, when he had found
+out his residence, he procured John Ross, keeper of the Poultry-counter,
+and William Miller, an officer under the Lord Mayor, to kidnap him. This
+was done by sending for him to a public-house in Fenchurch-street, and
+then seizing him. By these he was conveyed, without any warrant, to the
+Poultry-counter, where he was sold by his master, to John Kerr, for
+thirty pounds.
+
+Strong, in this situation, sent, as was usual, to his godfathers, John
+London and Stephen Nail, for their protections. They went, but were
+refused admittance to him. At length he sent for Mr. Granville Sharp:
+the latter went, but they still refused access to the prisoner. He
+insisted, however, upon seeing him, and charged the keeper of the prison
+at his peril to deliver him up, till he had been carried before a
+magistrate.
+
+Mr. Sharp, immediately upon this, waited upon Sir Robert Kite, the then
+lord mayor, and entreated him to send for Strong and to hear his case. A
+day was accordingly appointed. Mr. Sharp attended, and also William
+McBean, a notary public, and David Laird, captain of the ship Thames,
+which was to have conveyed Strong to Jamaica, in behalf of the
+purchaser, John Kerr. A long conversation ensued, in which the opinion
+of York and Talbot was quoted. Mr. Sharp made his observations. Certain
+lawyers who were present seemed to be staggered at the case, but
+inclined rather to recommit the prisoner: the lord mayor, however,
+discharged Strong, as he had been taken up without a warrant.
+
+As soon as this determination was made known, the parties began to move
+off. Captain Laird, however, who kept close to Strong, laid hold of him
+before he had quitted the room, and said aloud, "Then I now seize him as
+my slave." Upon this Mr. Sharp put his hand upon Laird's shoulder, and
+pronounced these words: "I charge you, in the name of the king, with an
+assault upon the person of Jonathan Strong, and all these are my
+witnesses." Laird was greatly intimidated by this charge, made in the
+presence of the lord mayor and others, and, fearing a prosecution, let
+his prisoner go, leaving him to be conveyed away by Mr. Sharp.
+
+Mr. Sharp having been greatly affected by this case, and foreseeing how
+much he might be engaged in others of a similar nature, thought it time
+that the law of the land should be known upon this subject: he applied,
+therefore, to Dr. Blackstone, afterwards Judge Blackstone, for his
+opinion upon it. He was, however, not satisfied with it when he received
+it; nor could he obtain any satisfactory answer from several other
+lawyers, to whom he afterwards applied. The truth is that the opinion of
+York and Talbot, which had been made public and acted upon by the
+planters, merchants, and others, was considered of high authority, and
+scarcely any one dared to question the legality of it. In this situation
+Mr. Sharp saw no means of help but in his own industry, and he
+determined immediately to give up two or three years to the study of the
+English law, that he might the better advocate the cause of these
+miserable people. The result of these studies was the publication of a
+book in the year 1769, which he called, _A Representation of the
+Injustice and Dangerous Tendency of Tolerating Slavery in England_. In
+this work he refuted, in the clearest manner, the opinion of York and
+Talbot: he produced against it the opinion of the Lord Chief Justice
+Holt, who, many years before, had determined that every slave coming
+into England became free: he attacked and refuted it again by a learned
+and laborious inquiry into all the principles of Villenage. He refuted
+it again by showing it to be an axiom in the British constitution, "That
+every man in England was free to sue for and defend his rights, and that
+force could not be used without a legal process," leaving it to the
+judges to determine whether an African was a man. He attacked also the
+opinion of Judge Blackstone, and showed where his error lay. This
+valuable book, containing these and other kinds of arguments on the
+subject, he distributed, but particularly among the lawyers, giving them
+an opportunity of refuting or acknowledging the doctrines it contained.
+
+While Mr. Sharp was engaged in this work, another case offered, in which
+he took a part: this was in the year 1768. Hylas, an African slave,
+prosecuted a person of the name of Newton for having kidnapped his wife,
+and sent her to the West Indies. The result of the trial was, that
+damages to the amount of a shilling were given, and the defendant was
+bound to bring back the woman, either by the first ship, or in six
+months from this decision of the court.
+
+But soon after the work just mentioned was out, and when Mr. Sharp was
+better prepared, a third case occurred: this happened in the year 1770.
+Robert Stapylton, who lived at Chelsea, in conjunction with John Malony
+and Edward Armstrong, two watermen, seized the person of Thomas Lewis,
+an African slave, in a dark night, and dragged him to a boat lying in
+the Thames; they then gagged him and tied him with a cord, and rowed him
+down to a ship, and put him on board to be sold as a slave in Jamaica.
+This base action took place near the garden of Mrs. Banks, the mother of
+the late Sir Joseph Banks. Lewis, it appears, on being seized, screamed
+violently. The servants of Mrs. Banks, who heard his cries, ran to his
+assistance, but the boat was gone. On informing their mistress of what
+had happened, she sent for Mr. Sharp, who began now to be known as the
+friend of the helpless Africans, and professed her willingness to incur
+the expense of bringing the delinquents to justice. Mr. Sharp, with some
+difficulty, procured a _habeas corpus_, in consequence of which Lewis
+was brought from Gravesend just as the vessel was on the point of
+sailing. An action was then commenced against Stapylton, who defended
+himself on the plea, "That Lewis belonged to him as his slave." In the
+course of the trial, Mr. Dunning, who was counsel for Lewis, paid Mr.
+Sharp a handsome compliment; for he held in his hand Mr. Sharp's book,
+on the _Injustice and Dangerous Tendency of Tolerating Slavery in
+England_, while he was pleading; and in his address to the jury he spoke
+and acted thus:--"I shall submit to you," says Mr. Dunning, "what my
+ideas are upon such evidence, reserving to myself an opportunity of
+discussing it more particularly, and reserving to myself a right to
+insist upon a position, which I will maintain (and here he held up the
+book to the notice of those present,) in any place and in any court of
+the kingdom, that our laws admit of no such property[A]." The result of
+the trial was, that the jury pronounced the plaintiff not to have been
+the property of the defendant, several of them crying out, "No property,
+no property."
+
+[Footnote A: It is lamentable to think that the same Mr. Dunning, in a
+cause of this kind, which came on afterwards, took the opposite side of
+the question.]
+
+After this one or two other trials came on, in which the oppressor was
+defeated, and several cases occurred in which poor slaves were liberated
+from the holds of vessels and other places of confinement, by the
+exertions of Mr. Sharp. One of these cases was singular. The vessels on
+board which a poor African had been dragged and confined, had reached
+the Downs, and had actually got under weigh for the West Indies: in two
+or three hours she would have been out of sight; but just at this
+critical moment the writ of _habeas corpus_ was carried on board. The
+officer who served it on the captain saw the miserable African chained
+to the mainmast, bathed in tears, and casting a last mournful look on
+the land of freedom, which was fast receding from his sight. The
+captain, on receiving the writ, became outrageous; but knowing the
+serious consequences of resisting the law of the land, he gave up his
+prisoner, whom the officer carried safe, but now crying for joy, to the
+shore.
+
+But though the injured Africans, whose causes had been tried, escaped
+slavery, and though many who had been forcibly carried into dungeons,
+ready to be transported into the Colonies, had been delivered out of
+them, Mr. Sharp was not easy in his mind: not one of the cases had yet
+been pleaded on the broad ground, "Whether an African slave, coming into
+England, became free?" This great question had been hitherto studiously
+avoided; it was still, therefore, left in doubt. Mr. Sharp was almost
+daily acting as if it had been determined, and as if he had been
+following the known law of the land: he wished, therefore, that the next
+cause might be argued upon this principle. Lord Mansfield too, who had
+been biassed by the opinion of York and Talbot, began to waver in
+consequence of the different pleadings he had heard on this subject: he
+saw also no end of trials like these, till the law should be
+ascertained, and he was anxious for a decision on the same basis as Mr.
+Sharp. In this situation the following case offered, which was agreed
+upon for the determination of this important question.
+
+James Somerset, an African slave, had been brought to England by his
+master, Charles Stewart, in November 1769. Somerset in process of time
+left him. Stewart took an opportunity of seizing him, and had him
+conveyed on board the Ann and Mary, Captain Knowles, to be carried out
+of the kingdom and sold as a slave in Jamaica: the question was,
+"Whether a slave, by coming into England, became free?"
+
+In order that time might be given for ascertaining the law fully on this
+head, the case was argued at three different sittings. First, in
+January, 1772; secondly, in February, 1772; and thirdly, in May, 1772.
+And that no decision otherwise than what the law warranted might be
+given, the opinion of the judges was taken upon the pleadings. The great
+and glorious result of the trial was, "That as soon as ever any slave
+set his foot upon English territory, he became free."
+
+Thus ended the great case of Somerset, which, having, been determined
+after so deliberate an investigation of the law, can never be reversed
+while the British Constitution remains. The eloquence displayed in it by
+those who were engaged on the side of liberty, was perhaps never
+exceeded on any occasion; and the names of the counsellors Davy, Glynn,
+Hargrave, Mansfield, and Alleyne, ought always to be remembered with
+gratitude by the friends of this great cause. For when we consider in
+how many crowded courts they pleaded, and the number of individuals in
+these, whose minds they enlightened, and whose hearts they interested in
+the subject, they are certainly to be put down as no small instruments
+in the promotion of it; but chiefly to him, under Divine Providence, are
+we to give the praise, who became the first great actor in it, who
+devoted his time, his talents, and his substance to this Christian
+undertaking, and by whose laborious researches the very pleaders
+themselves were instructed and benefited. By means of his almost
+incessant vigilance and attention, and unwearied efforts, the poor
+African ceased to be hunted in our streets as a beast of prey. Miserable
+as the roof might be, under which he slept, he slept in security. He
+walked by the side of the stately ship, and he feared no dungeon in her
+hold. Nor ought we, as Englishmen, to be less grateful to this
+distinguished individual than the African ought to be upon this
+occasion. To him we owe it, that we no longer see our public papers
+polluted by hateful advertisements of the sale of the human species, or
+that we are no longer distressed by the perusal of impious rewards for
+bringing back the poor and the helpless into slavery, or that we are
+prohibited the disgusting spectacle of seeing man bought by his
+fellow-man. To him, in short, we owe this restoration of the beauty of
+our constitution--this prevention of the continuance of our national
+disgrace.
+
+I shall say but little more of Mr. Sharp at present, than that he felt
+it his duty, immediately after the trial, to write to Lord North, then
+principal minister of state, warning him in the most earnest manner, to
+abolish immediately both the trade and the slavery of the human species
+in all the British dominions, as utterly irreconcileable with the
+principles of the British constitution, and the established religion of
+the land.
+
+Among other coadjutors, whom the cruel and wicked practices which have
+now been so amply detailed brought forward, was a worthy clergyman,
+whose name I have not yet been able to learn. He endeavoured to interest
+the public feeling in behalf of the injured Africans, by writing an
+epilogue to the _Padlock_, in which Mungo appeared as a black servant.
+This epilogue is so appropriate to the case, that I cannot but give it
+to the reader. Mungo enters, and thus addresses the audience:--
+
+
+  Thank you, my massas! have you laugh your fill?
+  Then let me speak, nor take that freedom ill.
+  E'en from _my_ tongue some heart-felt truths may fall,
+  And outraged Nature claims the care of all.
+  My tale in _any_ place would force a tear,
+  But calls for stronger, deeper feelings here;
+  For whilst I tread the free-born British land,
+  Whilst now before me crowded Britons stand,--
+  Vain, vain that glorious privilege to me,
+  I am a slave, where all things else are free.
+
+  Yet was I born, as you are, no man's slave,
+  An heir to all that liberal Nature gave;
+  My mind can reason, and my limbs can move
+  The same as yours; like yours my heart can love;
+  Alike my body food and sleep sustain;
+  And e'en like yours--feels pleasure, want, and pain.
+  One sun rolls o'er us, common skies surround;
+  One globe supports us, and one grave must bound.
+
+  Why then am I devoid of all to live
+  That manly comforts to a man can give?
+
+  To live--untaught religion's soothing balm,
+  Or life's choice arts; to live--unknown the calm,
+  Of soft domestic ease; those sweets of life,
+  The duteous offspring, and th' endearing wife?
+  To live--to property and rights unknown,
+  Not e'en the common benefits my own!
+  No arm to guard me from Oppression's rod,
+  My will subservient to a tyrant's nod!
+  No gentle hand, when life is in decay,
+  To soothe my pains, and charm my cares away;
+  But helpless left to quit the horrid stage,
+  Harassed in youth, and desolate in age!
+
+  But I was born in Afric's tawny strand,
+  And you in fair Britannia's fairer land;
+  Comes freedom, then, from colour?--Blush with shame!
+  And let strong Nature's crimson mark your blame.
+  I speak to Britons.--Britons--then behold
+  A man by, Britons _snared_, and _seized_, and _sold!_
+  And yet no British statute damns the deed,
+  Nor do the more than murderous villains bleed.
+
+  O sons of Freedom! equalize your laws,
+  Be all consistent, plead the negro's cause;
+  That all the nations in your code may see
+  The British negro, like the Briton, free.
+  But, should he supplicate your laws in vain,
+  To break, for ever, this disgraceful chain,
+  At least, let gentle usage so abate
+  The galling terrors of its passing state,
+  That he may share kind Heaven's all social plan;
+  For, though no Briton, Mungo is--a man.
+
+I may now add, that few theatrical pieces had a greater run than the
+_Padlock_; and that this epilogue, which was attached to it soon after
+it came out, procured a good deal of feeling for the unfortunate
+sufferers, whose cause it was intended to serve.
+
+Another coadjutor, to whom these cruel and wicked practices gave birth,
+was Thomas Day, the celebrated author of _Sandford and Merton_, and
+whose virtues were well known among those who had the happiness of his
+friendship. In the year 1773 he published a poem, which he wrote
+expressly in behalf of the oppressed Africans. He gave it the name of
+_The Dying Negro._ The preface to it was written in an able manner by
+his friend Counsellor Bicknell, who is therefore to be ranked among the
+coadjutors in this great cause. The poem was founded on a simple fact,
+which had taken place a year or two before. A poor negro had been seized
+in London, and forcibly put on board a ship, where he destroyed himself,
+rather than return to the land of slavery. To the poem is affixed a
+frontispiece, in which the negro is represented. He is made to stand in
+an attitude of the most earnest address to heaven, in the course of
+which, with the fatal dagger in his hand, he breaks forth in the
+following words:
+
+  To you this unpolluted blood I pour,
+  To you that spirit, which ye gave, restore.
+
+
+This poem, which was the first ever written expressly on the subject,
+was read extensively; and it added to the sympathy in favour of
+suffering humanity, which was now beginning to show itself in the
+kingdom.
+
+About this time the first edition of the _Essay an Truth_ made its
+appearance in the world. Dr. Beattie took an opportunity, in this work,
+of vindicating the intellectual powers of the Africans from the
+aspersions of Hume, and of condemning their slavery as a barbarous piece
+of policy, and as inconsistent with the free and generous spirit of the
+British nation.
+
+In the year 1774, John Wesley, the celebrated divine, to whose pious
+labours the religious world will long be indebted, undertook the cause
+of the poor Africans. He had been in America, and had seen and pitied
+their hard condition. The work which he gave to the world in
+consequence, was entitled _Thoughts on Slavery_. Mr. Wesley had this
+great cause much at heart, and frequently recommended it to the support
+of those who attended his useful ministry.
+
+In the year 1776, the Abbe Proyart brought out, at Paris, his _History
+of Loango_, and other kingdoms in Africa, in which he did ample justice
+to the moral and intellectual character of the natives there.
+
+The same year produced two new friends in England, in the same cause,
+but in a line in which no one had yet moved. David Hartley, then a
+member of parliament for Hull, and the son of Dr. Hartley who wrote the
+_Essay on Man_, found it impossible any longer to pass over without
+notice the case of the oppressed Africans. He had long felt for their
+wretched condition, and, availing himself of his legislative situation,
+he made a motion in the House of Commons, "That the Slave Trade was
+contrary to the laws of God, and the rights of men." In order that he
+might interest the members as much as possible in his motion, he had
+previously obtained some of the chains in use in this cruel traffic, and
+had laid them upon the table of the House of Commons. His motion was
+seconded by that great patriot and philanthropist, Sir George Saville.
+But though I am now to state that it failed, I cannot but consider it as
+a matter of pleasing reflection, that this great subject was first
+introduced into parliament by those who were worthy of it; by those who
+had clean hands and an irreproachable character, and to whom no motive
+of party or faction could be imputed, but only such as must have arisen
+from a love of justice, a true feeling of humanity, and a proper sense
+of religion.
+
+About this time two others, men of great talents and learning, promoted
+the cause of the injured Africans, by the manner in which they
+introduced them to notice in their respective works.
+
+Dr. Adam Smith, in his _Theory of Moral Sentiments_, had, so early as
+the year 1759, held them up in an honourable, and their tyrants in a
+degrading light. "There is not a Negro from the coast of Africa, who
+does not, in this respect, possess a degree of magnanimity which the
+soul of his sordid master is too often scarce capable of conceiving.
+Fortune never exerted more cruelly her empire over mankind, than when
+she subjected those nations of heroes to the refuse of the gaols of
+Europe, to wretches who possess the virtue neither of the countries they
+came from, nor of those they go to, and whose levity, brutality, and
+baseness so justly expose them to the contempt of the vanquished." And
+now, in 1776, in his _Wealth of Nations_ he showed in a forcible manner
+(for he appealed to the interest of those concerned,) the dearness of
+African labour; or the impolicy of employing slaves.
+
+Professor Millar, in his _Origin of Ranks_, followed Dr. Smith on the
+same ground. He explained the impolicy of slavery in general, by its bad
+effects upon industry, population, and morals. These effects he attached
+to the system of agriculture as followed in our islands. He showed,
+besides, how little pains were taken, or how few contrivances were
+thought of, to ease the labourers there. He contended that the Africans
+ought to be better treated, and to be raised to a better condition; and
+he ridiculed the inconsistency of those who held them in bondage. "It
+affords," says he, "a curious spectacle to observe that the same people,
+who talk in a high strain of political liberty, and who consider the
+privilege of imposing their own taxes as one of the unalienable rights
+of mankind, should make no scruple of reducing a great proportion of
+their fellow-creatures into circumstances by which they are not only
+deprived of property, but almost of every species of right. Fortune,
+perhaps, never produced a situation more calculated to ridicule a
+liberal hypothesis, or to show how little the conduct of men is at the
+bottom directed by any philosophical principles." It is a great honour
+to the University of Glasgow, that it should have produced, before any
+public agitation of this question, three professors[A], all of whom bore
+their public testimony against the continuance of the cruel trade.
+
+[Footnote A: The other was Professor Hutcheson, before mentioned in p.
+56.]
+
+From this time, or from about the year 1776, to about the year 1782, I
+am to put down three other coadjutors, whose labours seem to have come
+in a right season for the promotion of the cause.
+
+The first of these was Dr. ROBERTSON. In his _History of America_ he
+laid open many facts relative to this subject. He showed himself a warm
+friend both of the Indians and Africans. He lost no opportunity of
+condemning that trade, which brought the latter into bondage: "a trade,"
+says he, "which is no less repugnant to the feelings of humanity than to
+the principles of religion." And in his _Charles the Fifth_, he showed
+in a manner that was clear, and never to be controverted, that
+Christianity was the great cause in the twelfth century of extirpating
+slavery from the west of Europe. By the establishment of this fact, he
+rendered important services to the oppressed Africans. For if
+Christianity, when it began to be felt in the heart, dictated the
+abolition of slavery, it certainly became those who lived in a Christian
+country, and who professed the Christian religion, to put an end to this
+cruel trade.
+
+The second was the Abbe Raynal. This author gave an account of the laws,
+government, and religion of Africa, of the produce of it, of the manners
+of its inhabitants, of the trade in slaves, of the manner of procuring
+these, with several other particulars relating to the subject. And at
+the end of his account, fearing lest the good advice he had given for
+making the condition of the slaves more comfortable should be construed
+into an approbation of such a traffic, he employed several pages in
+showing its utter inconsistency with sound policy, justice, reason,
+humanity, and religion.
+
+"I will not here," says he, "so far debase myself as to enlarge the
+ignominious list of those writers who devote their abilities to justify
+by policy what morality condemns. In an age where so many errors are
+boldly laid open, it would be unpardonable to conceal any truth that is
+interesting to humanity. If whatever I have hitherto advanced hath
+seemingly tended only to alleviate the burden of slavery, the reason is,
+that it was first necessary to give some comfort to those unhappy beings
+whom we cannot set free, and convince their oppressors that they were
+cruel, to the prejudice of their real interests. But, in the mean time,
+till some considerable revolution shall make the evidence of this great
+truth felt, it may not be improper to pursue this subject further. I
+shall then first prove that there is no reason of state which can
+authorize slavery. I shall not be afraid to cite to the tribunal of
+reason and justice those governments which tolerate this cruelty, or
+which even are not ashamed to make it the basis of their power."
+
+And a little further on he observes--"Will it be said that he, who wants
+to make me a slave, does me no injury; but that he only makes use of his
+rights? Where are those rights? Who hath stamped upon them so sacred a
+character as to silence mine?"
+
+In the beginning of the next paragraph he speaks thus:--"He who supports
+the system of slavery is the enemy of the whole human race. He divides
+it into two societies of legal assassins; the oppressors, and the
+oppressed. It is the same thing as proclaiming to the world, if you
+would preserve your life, instantly take away mine, for I want to have
+yours."
+
+Going on two pages further, we find these words:--"But the Negroes, they
+say, are a race born for slavery; their dispositions are narrow,
+treacherous, and wicked; they themselves allow the superiority of our
+understandings, and almost acknowledge the justice of our authority.
+Yes; the minds of the Negroes are contracted, because slavery destroys
+all the springs of the soul. They are wicked, but not equally so with
+you. They are treacherous, because they are under no obligation to speak
+truth to their tyrants. They acknowledge the superiority of our
+understanding, because we have abused their ignorance. They allow the
+justice of our authority, because we have abused their weakness."
+
+"But these Negroes, it is further urged, were born slaves. Barbarians!
+will you persuade me that a man can be the property of a sovereign, a
+son the property of a father, a wife the property of a husband, a
+domestic the property of a master, a Negro the property of a planter?"
+
+But I have no time to follow this animated author, even by short
+extracts, through the varied strains of eloquence which he displays upon
+this occasion. I can only say that his labours entitle him to a high
+station among the benefactors to the African race.
+
+The third was Dr. PALEY, whose genius, talents, and learning have been
+so eminently displayed in his writings in the cause of natural and
+revealed religion. Dr. Paley did not write any essay expressly in favour
+of the Africans. But in his _Moral Philosophy_, where he treated on
+slavery, he took an opportunity of condemning, in very severe terms, the
+continuance of it. In this work he defined what slavery was, and how it
+might arise consistently with the law of nature; but he made an
+exception against that which arose from the African trade. "The Slave
+Trade," says he, "upon the coast of Africa, is not excused by these
+principles. When slaves in that country are brought to market, no
+questions, I believe, are asked about the origin or justice of the
+vendor's title. It may be presumed, therefore, that this title is not
+always, if it be ever, founded in any of the causes above assigned.
+
+"But defect of right in the first purchase is the least crime with which
+this traffic is chargeable. The natives are excited to war and mutual
+depredation, for the sake of supplying their contracts, or furnishing
+the markets with slaves. With this the wickedness begins. The slaves,
+torn away from their parents, wives, and children, from their friends
+and companions, from their fields and flocks, from their home and
+country, are transported to the European settlements in America, with no
+other accommodation on ship-board than what is provided for brutes. This
+is the second stage of the cruelty, from which the miserable exiles are
+delivered, only to be placed, and that for life, in subjection to a
+dominion add system of laws, the most merciless and tyrannical that ever
+were tolerated upon the face of the earth: and from all that can be
+learned by the accounts of people upon the spot, the inordinate
+authority which the plantation-laws confer upon the slaveholder is
+exercised, by the English slaveholder especially, with rigour and
+brutality.
+
+"But necessity is pretended, the name under which every enormity is
+attempted to be justified; and after all, what is the necessity? It has
+never been proved that the land could not be cultivated there, as it is
+here, by hired servants. It is said, that it could not be cultivated
+with quite the same conveniency and cheapness, as by the labour of
+slaves; by which means, a pound of sugar, which the planter now sells
+for sixpence, could not be afforded under sixpence-halfpenny--and this
+is the necessity!
+
+"The great revolution which has taken place in the western world, may,
+probably, conduce (and who knows but that it was designed) to accelerate
+the fall of this abominable tyranny: and now that this contest and the
+passions which attend it are no more, there may succeed, perhaps, a
+season for reflecting, whether a legislature, which had so long lent its
+assistance to the support of an institution replete with human misery,
+was fit to be trusted with an empire, the most extensive that ever
+obtained in any age or quarter of the world."
+
+The publication of these sentiments may be supposed to have produced an
+extensive effect. For _The Moral Philosophy_ was adopted early by some
+of the colleges in our universities into the system of their education.
+It soon found its way also into most of the private libraries of the
+kingdom; and it was, besides, generally read and approved. Dr. Paley,
+therefore, must be considered, as having been a considerable coadjutor
+in interesting the mind of the public in favour of the oppressed
+Africans.
+
+In the year 1783, we find Mr. Sharp coming again into notice. We find
+him at this time taking a part in a cause, the knowledge of which, in
+proportion as it was disseminated, produced an earnest desire among all
+disinterested persons for the abolition of the Slave Trade.
+
+In this year, certain underwriters desired to be heard against Gregson
+and others of Liverpool, in the case of the ship Zong, Captain
+Collingwood, alleging that the captain and officers of the said vessel
+threw overboard one hundred and thirty-two slaves alive into the seas in
+order to defraud them, by claiming the value of the said slaves, as if
+they had been lost in a natural way. In the course of the trial which
+afterwards came on, it appeared, that the slaves on board the Zong were
+very sickly; that sixty of them had already died; and several were ill
+and likely to die, when the captain proposed to James Kelsall, the mate,
+and others, to throw several of them overboard, stating, "that if they
+died a natural death, the loss would fall upon the owners of the ship;
+but that if they were thrown into the sea, it would fall upon the
+underwriters." He selected, accordingly, one hundred and thirty-two of
+the most sickly of the slaves. Fifty-four of these were immediately
+thrown overboard, and forty-two were made to be partakers of their fate
+on the succeeding day. In the course of three days afterwards the
+remaining twenty-six were brought upon deck to complete the number of
+victims. The first sixteen submitted to be thrown into the sea; but the
+rest, with a noble resolution, would not suffer the officers to touch
+them, but leaped after their companions and shared their fate.
+
+The plea which was set up in behalf of this atrocious and unparalleled
+act of wickedness was, that the captain discovered, when he made the
+proposal, that he had only two hundred gallons of water on board, and
+that he had missed his port. It was proved, however, in answer to this,
+that no one had been put upon short allowance; and that, as if
+Providence had determined to afford an unequivocal proof of the guilt, a
+shower of rain fell and continued for three days immediately after the
+second lot of slaves had been destroyed, by means of which they might
+have filled many of their vessels[A] with water, and thus have prevented
+all necessity for the destruction of the third.
+
+[Footnote A: It appeared that they filled six.]
+
+Mr. Sharp was present at this trial, and procured the attendance of a
+short-hand writer to take down the facts, which should come out in the
+course of it. These he gave to the public afterwards. He communicated
+them also, with a copy of the trial, to the Lords of the Admiralty, as
+the guardians of justice upon the seas, and to the Duke of Portland, as
+principal minister of state. No notice, however, was taken by any of
+these, of the information which had been thus sent them.
+
+But though nothing was done by the persons then in power, in consequence
+of the murder of so many innocent individuals, yet the publication of an
+account of it by Mr. Sharp, in the newspapers, made such an impression
+upon others, that; new coadjutors rose up. For, soon after this, we find
+Thomas Day entering the lists again as the champion of the injured
+Africans. He had lived to see his poem of _The Dying Negro_, which had
+been published in 1773, make a considerable impression. In 1776, he had
+written a letter to a friend in America, who was the possessor of
+slaves, to dissuade him by a number of arguments from holding such
+property; and now, when the knowledge of the case of the ship Zong was
+spreading, he published that letter under the title of Fragment of an
+Original Letter on the Slavery of the Negroes.
+
+In this same year, Dr. Porteus, Bishop of Chester, but now Bishop of
+London, came forward as a new advocate for the natives of Africa. The
+way in which he rendered them service, was by preaching a sermon in
+their behalf, before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Of
+the wide circulation of this sermon, I shall say something in another
+place, but much more of the enlightened and pious author of it, who from
+this time never failed to aid, at every opportunity, the cause which he
+had so ably undertaken.
+
+In the year 1784, Dr. GREGORY produced his _Essays, Historical and
+Moral_. He took an opportunity of disseminating in these a
+circumstantial knowledge of the Slave Trade, and an equal abhorrence of
+it at the same time. He explained the manner of procuring slaves in
+Africa; the treatment of them on the passage, (in which he mentioned the
+case of the ship Zong) and the wicked and cruel treatment of them in the
+colonies. He recited and refuted also the various arguments adduced in
+defence of the trade. He showed that it was destructive to our seamen.
+He produced many weighty arguments also against the slavery itself. He
+proposed clauses for an Act of Parliament for the abolition of both;
+showing the good both to England and her colonies from such a measure,
+and that a trade might be substituted in Africa, in various articles,
+for that which he proposed to suppress. By means of the diffusion of
+light like this, both of a moral and political nature; Dr. Gregory is
+entitled to be ranked among the benefactors to the African race.
+
+In the same year, Gilbert Wakefield preached a sermon at Richmond, in
+Surrey, where, speaking of the people of this nation, he says, "Have we
+been as renowned for a liberal communication of our religion and our
+laws as for the possession of them! Have we navigated and conquered to
+save, to civilize, and to instruct; or to oppress, to plunder, and to
+destroy? Let India and Africa give the answer to these questions. The
+one we have exhausted of her wealth and her inhabitants by violence, by
+famine, and by every species of tyranny and murder. The children of the
+other we daily carry from off the land of their nativity; like sheep to
+the slaughter, to return no more. We tear them from every object of
+their affection, or, sad alternative, drag them together to the horrors
+of a mutual servitude! We keep them in the profoundest ignorance. We
+gall them in a tenfold chain, with an unrelenting spirit of barbarity,
+inconceivable to all but the spectators of it, unexampled among former
+and other nations, and unrecorded even in the bloody registers of
+heathen persecution. Such is the conduct of us enlightened Englishmen,
+reformed Christians! Thus have we profited by our superior advantages,
+by the favour of God, by the doctrines and example of a meek and lowly
+Savior. Will not the blessings which we have abused loudly testify
+against us? Will not the blood which we have shed cry from the ground
+for vengeance upon our sins?"
+
+In the same year, James Ramsay, vicar of Teston in Kent, became also an
+able, zealous, and indefatigable patron of the African cause. This
+gentleman had resided nineteen years in the island of St. Christopher,
+where he had observed the treatment of the slaves, and had studied the
+laws relating to them. On his return to England, yielding to his own
+feelings of duty and the solicitations of some amiable friends, he
+published a work, which he called _An Essay on the Treatment and
+Conversion of the African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies_. After
+having given an account of the relative situation of master and slave in
+various parts of the world, he explained the low and degrading situation
+which the Africans held in society in our own islands. He showed that
+their importance would be increased; and the temporal interest of their
+masters promoted, by giving them freedom, and by granting them other
+privileges. He showed the great difficulty of instructing them in the
+state in which they then were, and such as he himself had experienced,
+both in his private and public attempts, and such as others had
+experienced also. He stated the way in which private attempts of this
+nature might probably be successful. He then answered all objections
+against their capacities, as drawn from philosophy, form, anatomy, and
+observation; and vindicated these from his own experience. And lastly,
+he threw out ideas for the improvement of their condition, by an
+establishment of a greater number of spiritual pastors among them; by
+giving them more privileges than they then possessed; and by extending
+towards them the benefits of a proper police. Mr. Ramsay had no other
+motive for giving this work to the public, than that of humanity, of a
+wish to serve this much-injured part of the human species. For he
+compiled it at the hazard of forfeiting that friendship, which he had
+contracted with many during his residence in the islands, and of
+suffering much in his private property, as well as subjecting himself to
+the ill-will and persecution of numerous individuals.
+
+The publication of this book by one who professed to have been so long
+resident in the islands, and to have been an eyewitness of facts,
+produced, as may easily be supposed, a good deal of conversation, and
+made a considerable impression, but particularly at this time, when a
+storm was visibly gathering over the heads of the oppressors of the
+African race. These circumstances occasioned one or two persons to
+attempt to answer it, and these answers brought Mr. Ramsay into the
+first controversy ever entered into on this subject, during which, as is
+the case in most controversies, the cause of truth was spread.
+
+The works which Mr. Ramsay wrote upon this subject were, the essay just
+mentioned, in 1784. _An Inquiry_, also, _into the Effects of the
+Abolition of the Slave Trade_, in 1784; _A Reply to Personal Invectives
+and Objections_, in 1785; _A Letter to James Tobin, Esq._, in 1787;
+_Objections to the Abolition of the Slave Trade, with Answers_; and _An
+Examination of Harris's Scriptural Researches on the Licitness of the
+Slave Trade_, in 1788; and _An Address on the proposed Bill for the
+Abolition of the Slave Trade_, in 1789. In short, from the time when he
+first took up the cause, he was engaged in it till his death, which was
+not a little accelerated by his exertions. He lived, however, to see
+this cause in a train of parliamentary inquiry, and he died satisfied;
+being convinced, as he often expressed, that the investigation must
+inevitably lead to the total abolition of the Slave Trade.
+
+In the next year, that is, in the year 1785, another advocate was seen
+in Monsieur Necker, in his celebrated work on the _French Finances_,
+which had just been translated into the English language from the
+original work, in 1784. This virtuous statesman, after having given his
+estimate of the population and revenue of the French West Indian
+colonies, proceeds thus:--"The colonies of France contain, as we have
+seen, near five hundred thousand slaves, and it is from the number of
+these poor wretches that the inhabitants set a value on their
+plantations. What a dreadful prospect! and how profound a subject for
+reflection! Alas! how little are we both in our morality and our
+principles! We preach up humanity, and yet go every year to bind in
+chains twenty thousand natives of Africa! We call the Moors barbarians
+and ruffians, because they attack the liberty of Europeans at the risk
+of their own; yet these Europeans go, without danger, and as mere
+speculators, to purchase slaves by gratifying the avarice of their
+masters, and excite all those bloody scenes which are the usual
+preliminaries of this traffic!" He goes on still further in the same
+strain. He then shows the kind of power which has supported this
+execrable trade. He throws out the idea of a general compact, by which
+all the European nations should agree to abolish it; and he indulges the
+pleasing hope that it may take place even in the present generation.
+
+In the same year we find other coadjutors coming before our view, but
+these in a line different from that in which any other belonging to this
+class had yet moved. Mr. George White, a clergyman of the established
+church, and Mr. John Chubb, suggested to Mr. William Tucket, the mayor
+of Bridgewater, where they resided, and to others of that town, the
+propriety of petitioning parliament for the abolition of the Slave
+Trade. This petition was agreed upon, and, when drawn up, was as
+follows:--
+
+"The humble petition of the inhabitants of Bridgewater showeth,
+
+"That your petitioners, reflecting with the deepest sensibility on the
+deplorable condition of that part of the human species, the African
+Negroes, who, by the most flagitious means, are reduced to slavery and
+misery in the British colonies, beg leave to address this honourable
+house in their behalf, and to express a just abhorrence of a system of
+oppression, which no prospect of private gain, no consideration of
+public advantage, no plea of political expediency, can sufficiently
+justify or excuse.
+
+"That, satisfied as your petitioners are that this inhuman system meets
+with the general execration of mankind, they flatter themselves the day
+is not far distant when it will be universally abolished. And they most
+ardently hope to see a British parliament, by the extinction of that
+sanguinary traffic, extend the blessings of liberty to millions beyond
+this realm, held up to an enlightened world a glorious and merciful
+example, and stand in the defence of the violated rights of human
+nature."
+
+This petition was presented by the Honourable Ann Poulet, and Alexander
+Hood, Esq., (afterwards Lord Bridport,) who were the members for the
+town of Bridgewater. It was ordered to lie on the table. The answer
+which these gentlemen gave to their constituents relative to the
+reception of it in the House of Commons is worthy of notice:--"There did
+not appear," say they in their common letter, "the least disposition to
+pay any further attention to it. Every one almost says that the
+abolition of the Slave Trade must immediately throw the West Indian
+islands into convulsions, and soon complete their utter ruin. Thus they
+will not trust Providence for its protection for so pious an
+undertaking."
+
+In the year 1786, Captain J.S. Smith, of the royal navy, offered himself
+to the notice of the public in behalf of the African cause. Mr. Ramsay,
+as I have observed before, had become involved in a controversy in
+consequence of his support of it. His opponents not only attacked his
+reputation, but had the effrontery to deny his facts. This circumstance
+occasioned Captain Smith to come forward. He wrote a letter to his
+friend Mr. Hill, in which he stated that he had seen those things, while
+in the West Indies, which Mr. Ramsay had asserted to exist, but which
+had been so boldly denied. He gave, also, permission to Mr. Hill to
+publish this letter. Too much praise cannot be bestowed on Captain
+Smith, for thus standing forth in a noble cause, and in behalf of an
+injured character.
+
+The last of the necessary forerunners and coadjutors of this class, whom
+I am to mention, was our much-admired poet, Cowper; and a great
+coadjutor he was, when we consider what value was put upon his
+sentiments, and the extraordinary circulation of his works. There are
+few persons who have not been properly impressed by the following
+lines:--
+
+
+     My ear is pain'd,
+  My soul is sick with every day's report,
+  Of wrong and outrage with which earth is fill'd.
+  There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart,
+  It does not feel for man. The natural bond
+  Of brotherhood is sever'd as the flax
+  That falls asunder at the touch of fire.
+  He finds his fellow guilty of a skin
+  Not colour'd like his own, and having power
+  To inforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause
+  Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.
+  Lands intersected by a narrow frith
+  Abhor each other. Mountains interpos'd,
+  Make enemies of nations, who had else,
+  Like kindred drops been mingled into one.
+  Thus man devotes his brother, and destroys;
+  And, worse than all, and most to be deplored
+  As human Nature's broadest, foulest blot,--
+  Chains him, and tasks him, and exacts his sweat
+  With stripes, that Mercy with a bleeding heart
+  Weeps, when she sees inflicted on a beast.
+  Then what is man? And what man, seeing this,
+  And having human feelings, does not blush
+  And hang his head to think himself a man?
+  I would not have a slave to till my ground,
+  To carry me, to fan me while I sleep,
+  And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth
+  That sinews bought and sold have ever earn'd.
+  No: dear as freedom is,--and in my heart's
+  Just estimation prized above all price,--
+  I had much rather be myself the slave,
+  And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him.
+  We have no slaves at home--then why abroad?
+  And they themselves once ferried o'er the wave
+  That parts us, are emancipate and loos'd.
+  Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs
+  Receive our air, that moment they are free;
+  They touch our country, and their shackles fall[A].
+  That's noble, and bespeaks a nation proud
+  And jealous of the blessing. Spread it, then,
+  And let it circulate through every vein
+  Of all your empire--that where Britain's power
+  Is felt, mankind may feel her mercy too.
+
+
+[Footnote A: Expressions used in the great trial, when Mr. Sharp
+obtained the verdict in favour of Somerset.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+--Second class of forerunners and coadjutors, up to May 1787,
+consists of the Quakers in England.--Of George Fox and others.--Of the
+body of the Quakers assembled at the yearly meeting in 1727; and at
+various other times.--Quakers, as a body, petition Parliament; and
+circulate books on the subject.--Individuals among them become labourers
+and associate in behalf of the Africans; Dilwyn, Harrison, and
+others.--This the first association ever formed in England for the
+purpose.
+
+
+The second class of the forerunners and coadjutors in this great cause,
+up to May 1787, will consist of the Quakers in England.
+
+The first of this class was George Fox, the venerable founder of this
+benevolent society.
+
+George Fox was contemporary with Richard Baxter, being born not long
+after him, and dying much about the same time. Like him, he left his
+testimony against this wicked trade. When he was in the island of
+Barbados, in the year 1671, he delivered himself to those who attended
+his religious meetings in the following manner:--
+
+"Consider with yourselves," says he, "if you were in the same condition
+as the poor Africans are--who came strangers to you, and were sold to
+you as slaves--I say, if this should be the condition of you or yours,
+you would think it a hard measure; yea, and very great bondage and
+cruelty. And, therefore, consider seriously of this; and do you for them
+and to them, as you would willingly have them, or any others, do unto
+you, were you in the like slavish condition, and bring them to know the
+Lord Christ." And in his Journal, speaking of the advice which he gave
+his friends at Barbados, he says, "I desired also that they would cause
+their overseers to deal mildly and gently with their negroes, and not to
+use cruelty towards them, as the manner of some had been, and that after
+certain years of servitude they should make them free."
+
+William Edmundson, who was a minister of the society, and, indeed, a
+fellow-traveller with George Fox, had the boldness in the same island to
+deliver his sentiments to the governor on the same subject. Having been
+brought before him and accused of making the Africans Christians, or, in
+other words, of making them rebel and destroy their owners, he replied,
+"That it was a good thing to bring them to the knowledge of God and
+Christ Jesus, and to believe in him who died for them and all men, and
+that this would keep them from rebelling, or cutting any person's
+throat; but if they did rebel and cut their throats, as the governor
+insinuated they would, it would be their own doing, in keeping them in
+ignorance and under oppression, in giving them liberty to be common with
+women like brutes, and, on the other hand, in starving them for want of
+meat and clothes convenient; thus, giving them liberty in that which God
+restrained, and restraining them in that which was meat and clothing."
+
+I do not find any individual of this society moving in this cause, for
+some time after the death of George Fox and William Edmundson. The first
+circumstance of moment which I discover, is a resolution of the whole
+Society on the subject, at their yearly meeting, held in London in the
+year 1727. The resolution was contained in the following words:--"It is
+the sense of this meeting, that the importing of negroes from their
+native country and relations by Friends is not a commendable nor allowed
+practice, and is, therefore, censured by this meeting."
+
+In the year 1758, the Quakers thought it their duty, as a body, to pass
+another resolution upon this subject. At this, time the nature of the
+trade beginning to be better known, we find them more animated upon it,
+as the following extract will show:--
+
+"We fervently warn all in profession with us, that they carefully avoid
+being any way concerned in reaping the unrighteous profits, arising from
+the iniquitous practice of dealing in negro or other slaves; whereby, in
+the original purchase, one man selleth another, as he doth the beasts
+that perish, without any better pretension to a property in him than
+that of superior force; in direct violation of the Gospel rule, which
+teacheth all to do as they would be done by, and to do good to all;
+being the reverse of that covetous disposition, which furnisheth
+encouragement to those poor ignorant people to perpetuate their savage
+wars, in order to supply the demands of this most unnatural traffic, by
+which great numbers of mankind, free by nature, are subject to
+inextricable bondage, and which hath often been observed to fill their
+possessors with haughtiness, tyranny, luxury, and barbarity, corrupting
+the minds and debasing the morals of their children, to the unspeakable
+prejudice of religion and virtue, and the exclusion of that holy spirit
+of universal love, meekness, and charity, which is the unchangeable
+nature and the glory of true Christianity. We, therefore, can do no
+less, than, with the greatest earnestness, impress it upon Friends
+everywhere, that they endeavour to keep their hands clear of this
+unrighteous gain of oppression."
+
+The Quakers hitherto, as appears by the two resolutions which have been
+quoted, did nothing more than seriously warn all those in religious
+profession with them against being concerned in this trade. But in three
+years afterwards, or at the yearly meeting in 1761, they came to a
+resolution, as we find by the following extract from their minutes, that
+any of their members haying a concern in it should be disowned:--"This
+meeting having reason to apprehend that divers under our name, are
+concerned in the unchristian traffic in negroes, doth recommend it
+earnestly to the care of Friends everywhere, to discourage, as much as
+in them lies, a practice so repugnant to our Christian profession; and
+to deal with all such as shall persevere in a conduct so reproachful to
+Christianity; and to disown them, if they desist not therefrom."
+
+The yearly meeting of 1761, having thus agreed to exclude from
+membership such as should be found concerned in this trade, that of 1763
+endeavoured to draw the cords, still tighter, by attaching criminality
+to those who should aid and abet the trade in any manner. By the minute,
+which was made on this occasion, I apprehend that no one belonging to
+the Society could furnish even materials for such voyages. "We renew our
+exhortation, that Friends everywhere be especially careful to keep their
+hands clear of giving encouragement in any shape to the Slave Trade, it
+being evidently destructive of the natural rights of mankind, who are
+all ransomed by one Saviour, and visited by one divine light, in order
+to salvation; a traffic calculated to enrich and aggrandize some upon
+the misery of others; in its nature abhorrent to every just and tender
+sentiment, and contrary to the whole tenour of the Gospel."
+
+Some pleasing intelligence having been sent on this subject, by the
+Society in America to the Society in England, the yearly meeting of 1772
+thought it their duty to notice it, and to keep their former resolutions
+alive by the following minute:--"It appears that the practice of holding
+negroes in oppressive and unnatural bondage hath been so successfully
+discouraged by Friends in some of the colonies, as to be considerably
+lessened. We cannot but approve of these salutary endeavours, and
+earnestly intreat that they may be continued, that through the favour of
+divine Providence a traffic, so unmerciful and unjust in its nature to a
+part of our own species made, equally with ourselves, for immortality,
+may come to be considered by all in its proper light, and be utterly
+abolished as a reproach to the Christian name."
+
+I must beg leave to stop here for a moment, just to pay the Quakers a
+due tribute of respect for the proper estimation, in which they have
+uniformly held the miserable outcasts of society, who have been the
+subject of these minutes. What a contrast does it afford to the
+sentiments of many others concerning them! How have we been compelled to
+prove by a long chain of evidence, that they had the same feelings and
+capacities as ourselves! How many, professing themselves enlightened,
+even now view them as of a different species! But in the minutes which
+have been cited we have seen them uniformly represented, as persons
+"ransomed by one and the same Saviour," "as visited by one and the same
+light for salvation," and "as made equally for immortality as others."
+These practical views of mankind, as they are highly honourable to the
+members of this Society, so they afford a proof both of the reality and
+of the consistency of their religion.
+
+But to return:--From this time, there appears to have been a growing
+desire in this benevolent society to step out of its ordinary course in
+behalf of this injured people. It had hitherto confined itself to the
+keeping of its own members unpolluted by any gain from their oppression.
+But it was now ready to make an appeal to others, and to bear a more
+public testimony in their favour. Accordingly, in the month of June,
+1783, when a bill had been brought into the House of Commons for certain
+regulations to be made with respect to the African Trade, the society
+sent the following petition to that branch of the legislature:--
+
+"Your petitioners, met in this their annual assembly, having solemnly
+considered the state of the enslaved negroes, conceive themselves
+engaged, in religious duty, to lay the suffering situation of that
+unhappy people before you, as a subject loudly calling for the humane
+interposition of the legislature,
+
+"Your petitioners regret that a nation, professing the Christian faith,
+should so far counteract the principles of humanity and justice, as by
+the cruel treatment of this oppressed race to fill their minds with
+prejudices against the mild and beneficent doctrines of the gospel.
+
+"Under the countenance of the laws of this country, many thousand of
+these our fellow-creatures, entitled to the natural rights of mankind,
+are held as personal property in cruel bondage; and your petitioners
+being informed that a Bill for the Regulation of the African Trade is
+now before the House, containing a clause which restrains the officers
+of the African Company from exporting negroes, your petitioners, deeply
+affected with a consideration of the rapine, oppression, and bloodshed,
+attending this traffic, humbly request that this restriction may be
+extended to all persons whomsoever, or that the House would grant such
+other relief in the premises as in its wisdom may seem meet."
+
+This petition was presented by Sir Cecil Wray, who, on introducing it,
+spoke very respectfully of the society. He declared his hearty
+approbation of their application, and said he hoped he should see the
+day when not a slave would remain within the dominions of this realm.
+Lord North seconded the motion, saying he could have no objection to the
+petition, and that its object ought to recommend it to every humane
+breast; that it did credit to the most benevolent society in the world;
+but that, the session, being so far advanced, the subject, could not
+then be taken into consideration; and he regretted that the Slave Trade,
+against which the petition was so justly directed, was in a commercial
+view become necessary to almost every nation of Europe. The petition was
+then brought up and read, after which it was ordered to lie on the
+table. This was the first petition (being two years earlier than that
+from the inhabitants of Bridgewater), which was ever presented to
+parliament for the abolition of the Slave Trade.
+
+But the society did not stop here; for having at the yearly meeting of
+1783 particularly recommended the cause to a standing committee,
+appointed to act at intervals, called the Meeting for Sufferings, the
+latter in this same year resolved upon an address to the public,
+entitled, _The Case of our Fellow-creatures, the oppressed Africans,
+respectfully recommended to the serious Consideration of the Legislature
+of Great Britain, by the People called Quakers_: in which they
+endeavoured, in the most pathetic manner, to make the reader acquainted
+with the cruel nature of this trade; and they ordered 2000 copies of it
+to be printed.
+
+In the year 1784, they began the distribution of this case. The first
+copy was sent to the king through Lord Carmarthen, and the second and
+the third, through proper officers, to the queen and the Prince of
+Wales. Others were sent by a deputation of two members of the society to
+Mr. Pitt, as prime-minister; to the Lord Chancellor Thurlow; to Lord
+Gower, as president of the council; to Lords Carmarthen and Sidney, as
+secretaries of state; to Lord Chief-Justice Mansfield; to Lord Howe, as
+first lord of the Admiralty; and to C.F. Cornwall, Esq., as speaker of
+the House of Commons. Copies were sent also to every member of both
+houses of parliament.
+
+The society, in the same year, anxious that the conduct of its members
+should be consistent with its public profession on this great subject,
+recommended it to the quarterly and monthly meetings to inquire through
+their respective districts, whether any, bearing its name, were in any
+way concerned in the traffic, and to deal with such, and to report the
+success of their labours in the ensuing year. Orders were also given for
+the reprinting and circulation of 10,000 other copies of _The Case_.
+
+In the year 1785, the society interested itself again in a similar
+manner. For the Meeting for Sufferings, as representing it, recommended
+to the quarterly meetings to distribute a work, written by Anthony
+Benezet, in America, called _A Caution to Great Britain and her
+Colonies, in a short Representation of the calamitous State of the
+enslaved Negroes in the British Dominions._ This book was accordingly
+forwarded to them for this purpose. On receiving it, they sent it among
+several public bodies, the regular and dissenting clergy, justices of
+the peace, and particularly among the great Schools of the kingdom, that
+the rising youth might acquire a knowledge, and at the same time a
+detestation, of this cruel traffic. In this latter base, a deputation of
+the society waited, upon the masters, to know if they would allow their
+scholars to receive it. The schools of Westminster, the Charter-house,
+St. Paul, Merchant-Taylors, Eton, Winchester, and Harrow, were among
+those visited. Several academies also were visited for this purpose.
+
+But I must now take my leave of the Quakers as a public body[A] and go
+back to the year 1783, to record an event, which will be found of great
+importance in the present history, and in which only individuals
+belonging to the society were concerned. This event seems to have arisen
+naturally out of existing or past circumstances. For the society, as I
+have before stated, had sent a petition to parliament in this year,
+praying for the abolition, of the Slave Trade. It had also laid the
+foundation for a public distribution of the books as just mentioned,
+with a view of enlightening others on this great subject. The case of
+the ship Zong, which I have before had occasion to explain, had occurred
+this same year. A letter also had been presented, much about the same
+time, by Benjamin West, from Anthony Benezet, before mentioned, to our
+queen, in behalf of the injured Africans, which she had received
+graciously. These subjects occupied at this time the attention of many
+Quaker families, and among others, that of a few individuals, who were
+in close intimacy with each other. These, when they met together,
+frequently conversed upon them. They perceived, as facts came out in
+conversation, that there was a growing knowledge and hatred of the Slave
+Trade, and that the temper of the times was ripening towards its
+abolition. Hence a disposition manifested itself among these, to unite
+as labourers for the furtherance of so desirable an object. An union was
+at length proposed and approved of, and the following persons (placed in
+alphabetical order) came together to execute the offices growing out of
+it:--
+
+[Footnote A: The Quakers, as a public body, kept the subject alive at
+their yearly meeting in 1784, 1785, 1787, &c.]
+
+WILLIAM DILLWYN,  THOMAS KNOWLES, M.D.
+GEORGE HARRISON,  JOHN LLOYD,
+SAMUEL HOARE,     JOSEPH WOODS.
+
+
+The first meeting was held on the seventh of July, 1783. At this "they
+assembled to consider what steps they should take for the relief and
+liberation of the negro slaves in the West Indies, and for the
+discouragement of the Slave Trade on the coast of Africa."
+
+To promote this object; they conceived it necessary that the public mind
+should be enlightened respecting it. They had recourse; therefore, to
+the public papers, and they appointed their members in turn to write in
+these, and to see that their productions were inserted. They kept
+regular minutes for this purpose. It was not however known to the world
+that such an association existed.
+
+It appears that they had several meetings in the course of this year.
+Before the close of it they had secured a place in the _General Evening
+Post_, in _Lloyd's Evening Post_, in the Norwich, Bath, York, Bristol,
+Sherborne, Liverpool, Newcastle, and other provincial papers, for such
+articles as they chose to send to them. These consisted principally of
+extracts from such authors, both in prose and verse, as they thought
+would most enlighten and interest the mind upon the subject of their
+institution.
+
+In the year 1784 they pursued the same plan; but they began now to print
+books. The first was from a manuscript composed by Joseph Woods, one of
+the committee; It was entitled, _Thoughts on the Slavery of the
+Negroes_. This manuscript was well put together. It was a manly and yet
+feeling address in behalf of the oppressed Africans. It contained a
+sober and dispassionate appeal to the reason of all, without offending
+the prejudices of any. It was distributed at the expense of the
+association, and proved to be highly useful to the cause which it was
+intended to promote.
+
+A communication having been made to the committee, that Dr. Porteus,
+then Bishop of Chester, had preached a sermon before the society for the
+propagation of the gospel, in behalf of the injured Africans, (which
+sermon was noticed in the last chapter,) Samuel Hoare was deputed to
+obtain permission to publish it. This led him to a correspondence with
+Mr. Ramsay before mentioned. The latter applied in consequence to the
+bishop, and obtained his consent. Thus this valuable sermon was also
+given to the world.
+
+In the year 1785, the association continued their exertions as before;
+but I have no room to specify them. I may observe, however, that David
+Barclay, a grandson of the great apologist of that name, assisted at one
+of their meetings, and (what is singular) that he was in a few years
+afterwards unexpectedly called to a trial of his principles on this very
+subject. For he and his brother John became, in consequence of a debt
+due to them, possessed of a large grazing farm, or pen, in Jamaica,
+which had thirty-two slaves upon it. Convinced, however, that the
+retaining of their fellow-creatures in bondage was not only
+irreconcilable with the principles of Christianity, but subversive of
+the rights of human nature, they determined upon the emancipation of
+these. And they[A] performed this generous office to the satisfaction of
+their minds, to the honour of their characters, to the benefit of the
+public, and to the happiness of the slave[B]. I mention this anecdote,
+not only to gratify myself, by paying a proper respect to those generous
+persons who sacrificed their interest to principle, but also to show the
+sincerity of David Barclay, (who is now the only surviving brother,) as
+he actually put in practice what at one of these meetings he was
+desirous of recommending to others.
+
+[Footnote A: They engaged an agent to embark for Jamaica in 1796 to
+effect this business, and had the slaves conveyed to Philadelphia, where
+they were kindly received by the Society for improving the Condition of
+free Black people. Suitable situations were found for the adults, and
+the young ones were bound out apprentices to handicraft trades, and to
+receive school learning.]
+
+[Footnote B: James Pemberton, of Philadelphia, made the following
+observation in a letter to a Friend in England:--"David Barclay's humane
+views towards the Blacks from Jamaica have been so far realized, that
+these objects of his concern enjoy their freedom with comfort to
+themselves, and are respectable in their characters, keeping up a
+friendly intercourse with each other, and avoiding to intermix with the
+common Blacks of this city, being sober in their conduct and industrious
+in their business."]
+
+Having now brought up the proceedings of this little association towards
+the year 1786, I shall take my leave of it, remarking, that it was the
+first ever formed in England for the promotion of the abolition of the
+Slave Trade. That Quakers have had this honour is unquestionable. Nor is
+it extraordinary that they should have taken the lead on this occasion,
+when we consider how advantageously they have been situated for so
+doing. For the Slave Trade, as we have not long ago seen, came within
+the discipline of the society in the year 1727. From thence it continued
+to be an object of it till 1783. In 1783 the society petitioned
+parliament, and in 1784 it distributed books to enlighten the public
+concerning it. Thus we see that every Quaker, born since the year 1727,
+was nourished as it were in a fixed hatred against it. He was taught,
+that any concern in it was a crime of the deepest dye. He was taught,
+that the bearing of his testimony against it was a test of unity with
+those of the same religious profession. The discipline of the Quakers
+was therefore a school for bringing them up as advocates for the
+abolition of this trade. To this it may be added, that the Quakers knew
+more about the trade and the slavery of the Africans, than any other
+religious body of men, who had not been in the land of their sufferings.
+For there had been a correspondence between the society in America and
+that in England on the subject, the contents of which must have been
+known to the members of each. American ministers also were frequently
+crossing the Atlantic on religious missions to England. These, when they
+travelled through various parts of our island, frequently related to the
+Quaker families in their way the cruelties they had seen and heard of in
+their own country. English ministers were also frequently going over to
+America on the same religious errand. These, on their return, seldom
+failed to communicate what they had learned or observed, but more
+particularly relative to the oppressed Africans, in their travels. The
+journals also of these, which gave occasional accounts of the sufferings
+of the slaves, were frequently published. Thus situated in point of
+knowledge, and brought up moreover from their youth in a detestation of
+the trade, the Quakers were ready to act whenever a favourable
+opportunity should present itself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Third class of forerunners and coadjutors, up to 1787,
+consists of the Quakers and others in America.--Yearly meeting for
+Pennsylvania and the Jerseys takes up the subject in 1696; and continue
+it till 1787.--Other five yearly meetings take similar
+measures.--Quakers, as individuals, also become labourers; William
+Burling and others.--Individuals of other religious denominations take
+up the cause also; Judge Sewell and others.--Union of the Quakers with
+others in a society for Pennsylvania, in 1774; James Pemberton; Dr.
+Rush.--Similar union of the Quakers with others for New York and other
+provinces.
+
+
+The next class of the forerunners and coadjutors, up to the year 1787,
+will consist, first, of the Quakers in America; and then of others, as
+they were united to these for the same object.
+
+It may be asked, How the Quakers living there should have become
+forerunners and coadjutors in the great work now under our
+consideration. I reply, first, that it was an object for many years with
+these to do away the Slave Trade as it was carried on in their own
+ports. But this trade was conducted in part, both before and after the
+independence of America, by our own countrymen. It was, secondly, an
+object with these to annihilate slavery in America; and this they have
+been instruments in accomplishing to a considerable extent. But any
+abolition of slavery within given boundaries must be a blow to the Slave
+Trade there. The American Quakers, lastly, living in a land where both
+the commerce and slavery existed, were in the way of obtaining a number
+of important facts relative to both, which made for their annihilation;
+and communicating many of these facts to those in England, who espoused
+the same cause, they became fellow-labourers with these in producing the
+event in question.
+
+The Quakers in America, it must be owned, did most of them originally as
+other settlers there with respect to the purchase of slaves. They had
+lands without a sufficient number of labourers, and families without a
+sufficient number of servants, for their work. Africans were poured in
+to obviate these difficulties, and these were bought promiscuously by
+all. In these days, indeed, the purchase of them was deemed favourable
+to both parties, for there was little or no knowledge of the manner in
+which they had been procured as slaves. There was no charge of
+inconsistency on this account, as in later times. But though many of the
+Quakers engaged, without their usual consideration, in purchases of this
+kind, yet those constitutional principles, which belong to the society,
+occasioned the members of it in general to treat those whom they
+purchased with great tenderness, considering them, though of a different
+colour, as brethren, and as persons for whose spiritual welfare it
+became them to be concerned; so that slavery, except as to the power
+legally belonging to it, was in general little more than servitude in
+their hands.
+
+This treatment, as it was thus mild on the continent of America where
+the members of this society were the owners of slaves, so it was equally
+mild in The West India Islands where they had a similar property. In the
+latter countries, however, where only a few of them lived, it began soon
+to be productive of serious consequences; for it was so different from
+that which the rest of the inhabitants considered to be proper, that the
+latter became alarmed at it. Hence in Barbados an act was passed in
+1676, under Governor Atkins, which was entitled, An Act to prevent the
+people called Quakers from bringing their Negroes into their meetings
+for worship, though they held these in their own houses. This act was
+founded on the pretence, that the safety of the island might be
+endangered, if the slaves were to imbibe the religious principles of
+their masters. Under this act Ralph Fretwell and Richard Sutton were
+fined in the different sums of eight hundred and of three hundred
+pounds, because each of them had suffered a meeting of the Quakers at
+his own house, at the first of which eighty negroes, and at the second
+of which thirty of them were present. But this matter was carried still
+further; for in 1680, Sir Richard Dutton, then governor of the island,
+issued an order to the Deputy Provost Marshal and others, to prohibit
+all meetings of this society. In the island of Nevis the same bad spirit
+manifested itself. So early as in 1661, a law was made there prohibiting
+members of this society from coming on shore. Negroes were put in irons
+for being present at their meetings, and they themselves were fined
+also. At length, in 1677, another act was passed, laying a heavy penalty
+on every master of a vessel who should even bring a Quaker to the
+island. In Antigua and Bermudas similar proceedings took place, so that
+the Quakers were in time expelled from this part of the world. By these
+means a valuable body of men were lost to the community in these
+islands, whose example might have been highly useful; and the poor
+slave, who saw nothing but misery in his temporal prospects, was
+deprived of the only balm which could have soothed his sorrow--the
+comfort of religion.
+
+But to return to the continent of America. Though the treatment which
+the Quakers adopted there towards those Africans who fell into their
+hands, was so highly commendable, it did not prevent individuals among
+them from becoming uneasy about holding them in slavery at all. Some of
+these bore their private testimony against it from the beginning as a
+wrong practice, and in process of time brought it before the notice of
+their brethren as a religious body. So early as in the year 1688, some
+emigrants from Krieshiem in Germany, who had adopted the principles of
+William Penn, and followed him into Pennsylvania, urged, in the yearly
+meeting of the society there, the inconsistency of buying, selling, and
+holding men in slavery, with the principles of the Christian religion.
+
+In the year 1696, the yearly meeting for that province took up the
+subject as a public concern, and the result was, advice to the members
+of it to guard against future-importations of African slaves, and to be
+particularly attentive to the treatment of those who were then in their
+possession.
+
+In the year 1711, the same yearly meeting resumed the important subject,
+and confirmed and renewed the advice which had been before given.
+
+From this time it continued to keep the subject alive; but finding at
+length, that though individuals refused to purchase slaves, yet others
+continued the custom, and in greater numbers than it was apprehended
+would have been the case after the public declarations which had been
+made, it determined, in the year 1754, upon a fuller and more serious
+publication of its sentiments; and therefore it issued, in the same
+year, the following pertinent letter to all the members within its
+jurisdiction:--
+
+
+    Dear Friends,
+
+    It hath frequently been the concern of our yearly meeting to
+    testify their uneasiness and disunity with the importation and
+    purchasing of negroes and other slaves, and to direct the
+    overseers of the several meetings to advise and deal with such
+    as engage therein. And it hath likewise been the continual care
+    of many weighty friends to press those who bear our name, to
+    guard, as much as possible, against being in any respect
+    concerned in promoting the bondage of such unhappy people. Yet,
+    as we have with sorrow to observe, that their number is of late
+    increased among us, we have thought it proper to make our advice
+    and judgment more public, that none may plead ignorance of our
+    principles therein; and also again earnestly to exhort all to
+    avoid, in any manner, encouraging that practice of making slaves
+    of our fellow-creatures.
+
+    Now, dear friends, if we continually bear in mind the royal law
+    of doing to others as we would be done by, we should never think
+    of bereaving our fellow-creatures of that valuable
+    blessing--liberty, nor endure to grow rich by their bondage. To
+    live in ease and plenty by the toil of those whom violence and
+    cruelty have put in our power, is neither consistent with
+    Christianity nor common justice; and, we have good reason to
+    believe, draws down the displeasure of Heaven; it being a
+    melancholy but true reflection, that, where slave-keeping
+    prevails, pure religion and sobriety decline, as it evidently
+    tends to harden the heart, and render the soul less susceptible
+    of that holy spirit of love, meekness and charity, which is the
+    peculiar characteristic of a true Christian.
+
+    How then can we, who have been concerned to publish the Gospel
+    of universal love and peace among mankind, be so inconsistent
+    with ourselves, as to purchase such as are prisoners of war, and
+    thereby encourage, this anti-Christian practice; and more
+    especially as many of these poor creatures are stolen away,
+    parents from children, and children from parents; and others,
+    who were in good circumstances in their native country,
+    inhumanly torn from what they esteemed a happy situation, and
+    compelled to toil in a state of slavery, too often extremely
+    cruel!
+
+    What dreadful scenes of murder and cruelty those barbarous
+    ravages must occasion in these unhappy people's country are too
+    obvious to mention. Let us make their case our own, and consider
+    what we should think, and how we should feel, were we in their
+    circumstances. Remember our blessed Redeemer's positive
+    command--to do unto others as we would have them do unto
+    us;--and that with what measure we mete, it shall be measured to
+    us again. And we intreat you to examine, whether the purchasing
+    of a negro, either born here or imported, doth not contribute to
+    a further importation, and, consequently, to the upholding of
+    all the evils above mentioned, and to the promoting of
+    man-stealing, the, only theft which by the Mosaic law was
+    punished with death;--He that stealeth a man and selleth him or
+    if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.'
+
+    The characteristic and badge of a true Christian is love and
+    continual exercise of them: 'Love one, another,' says he, 'as I
+    have loved you.' But how can we be said to love our brethren who
+    bring, or, for selfish ends, keep them in bondage? Do we act
+    consistently with this noble principle, who lay such heavy
+    burdens on our fellow creatures? Do we consider that they are
+    called and do we sincerely desire that they may become heirs
+    with us in glory, and that they may rejoice in the liberty of
+    the sons of God, whilst we are withholding from them the common
+    liberties of mankind? Or can the spirit of God, by which we have
+    always professed to be led, be the author of these oppressive
+    and unrighteous measures? Or do we not thereby manifest, that
+    temporal interest hath more influence on our conduct herein,
+    than the dictates of that merciful, holy, and unerring Guide?
+
+    And we, likewise, earnestly recommend to all who have slaves, to
+    be careful to come up in the performance of their duty towards
+    them, and to be particularly watchful over their own hearts, it
+    being, by sorrowful experience, remarkable that custom and a
+    familiarity with evil of any kind, have a tendency to bias the
+    judgment and to deprave the mind; and it is obvious, that the
+    future welfare of these poor slaves, who are now in bondage, is
+    generally too much disregarded by those who keep them. If their
+    daily task of labour be but fulfilled, little else, perhaps, is
+    thought of: nay, even that which in others would be looked upon
+    with horror and detestation, is little regarded in them by their
+    masters; such as the frequent separation of husbands from wives,
+    and wives from husbands, whereby they are tempted to break their
+    marriage covenants, and live in adultery, in direct opposition
+    to the laws of God and men, although we believe that Christ died
+    for all men without respect of persons. How fearful then ought
+    we to be of engaging in what hath so natural a tendency to
+    lesson our humanity, and of suffering ourselves to be inured to
+    the exercise of hard and cruel measures, lest thereby, in any
+    degree, we lose our tender and feeling sense of the miseries of
+    our fellow-creatures, and become worse than those who have not
+    believed.
+
+    And, dear friends, you, who by inheritance have slaves born in
+    your families, we beseech you to consider them as souls
+    committed to your trust, whom the Lord will require at your
+    hand, and who, as well as you, are made partakers of the Spirit
+    of grace, and called to be heirs of salvation. And let it be
+    your constant care to watch over them for good, instructing them
+    in the fear of God and the knowledge of the Gospel of Christ,
+    that they may answer the end of their creation, and that God may
+    be glorified and honoured by them, as well as by us. And so
+    train them up, that if you should come to behold their unhappy
+    situation, in the same light that many worthy men who are at
+    rest have done, and many of your brethren now do, and should
+    think it your duty to set them free, they may be the more
+    capable of making proper use of their liberty.
+
+    Finally, brethren, we intreat you, in the bowels of Gospel-love,
+    seriously to weigh the Cause of detaining them in bondage. If it
+    be for your own private gain, or any other motive than their
+    good, it is much to be feared that the love of God, and the
+    influence of the Holy Spirit, are not the prevailing principles
+    in you, and that your hearts are not sufficiently redeemed from
+    the world, which, that you with ourselves may more and more come
+    to witness, through the cleansing virtue of the Holy Spirit of
+    Jesus Christ, is our earnest desire. With the salutation of our
+    love we are your friends and brethren:--
+
+    _"Signed, in behalf of the yearly meeting, by_
+
+    JOHN EVANS,        ABRAHAM FARRINGDON,
+    JOHN SMITH,        JOSEPH NOBLE,
+    THOMAS CARLETON,   JAMES DANIEL,
+    WILLIAM TRIMBLE,   JOSEPH GIBSON,
+    JOHN SCARBOROUGH,  JOHN SHOTWELL,
+    JOSEPH HAMPTON,    JOSEPH PARKER."
+
+
+This truly Christian letter, which was written in the year 1754, was
+designed, as we collect from the contents of it, to make the sentiments
+of the society better known and attended to on the subject of the Slave
+Trade. It contains, as we see, exhortations to all the members within
+the yearly meeting of Pennsylvania and the Jerseys, to desist from
+purchasing and importing slaves, and, where they possessed them, to have
+a tender consideration of their condition. But that the first part of
+the subject of this exhortation might be enforced, the yearly meeting
+for the same provinces came to a resolution in 1755, That if any of the
+members belonging to it bought or imported slaves, the overseers were to
+inform their respective monthly meetings of it, that "these might treat
+with them, as they might be directed in the wisdom of truth."
+
+In the year 1774, we find the same yearly meeting legislating again on
+the same subject. By the preceding resolution they who became offenders,
+were subjected only to exclusion from the meetings for discipline, and
+from the privilege of contributing to the pecuniary occasions of the
+Society; but, by the resolution of the present year, all members
+concerned in importing, selling, purchasing, giving, or transferring
+negro or other slaves, or otherwise acting in such manner as to continue
+them in slavery beyond the term limited by law[A] or custom, were
+directed to be excluded from membership or disowned. At this meeting
+also all the members of it were cautioned and advised against acting as
+executors or administrators to estates, where slaves were bequeathed, or
+likely to be detained in bondage.
+
+[Footnote A: This alludes to the term of servitude for white persons in
+these provinces.]
+
+In the year 1776, the same yearly meeting carried the matter still
+further. It was enacted, That the owners of slaves, who refused to
+execute proper instruments for giving them their freedom, were to be
+disowned likewise.
+
+In 1778 it was enacted by the same meeting, that the children of those
+who had been set free by members, should be tenderly advised, and have a
+suitable education given them.
+
+It is not necessary to proceed further on this subject. It may be
+sufficient to say, that from this time the minutes of the yearly meeting
+for Pennsylvania and the Jerseys exhibit proofs of an almost incessant
+attention, year after year[B], to the means not only of wiping away the
+stain of slavery from their religious community, but of promoting the
+happiness of those restored to freedom, and of their posterity also; and
+as the yearly meeting of Pennsylvania and the Jerseys set this bright
+example, so those of New England, New York, Maryland, Virginia, and of
+the Carolinas and Georgia, in process of time followed it.
+
+[Footnote B: Thus in 1778-1782, 1784-1786. The members also of this
+meeting petitioned their own legislature on this subject, both in 1783
+and in 1786.]
+
+But, whilst the Quakers were making these exertions at their different
+yearly meetings in America, as a religious body, to get rid both of the
+commerce and slavery of their fellow-creatures, others, in the same
+profession; were acting as individuals, (that is, on their own grounds,
+and independently of any influence from their religious communion,) in
+the same cause, whose labours it will now be proper, in a separate
+narrative, to detail.
+
+The first person of this description in the Society, was William
+Burling, of Long Island. He had conceived an abhorrence of slavery from
+early youth. In process of time he began to bear his testimony against
+it, by representing the unlawfulness of it to those of his own Society,
+when assembled at one of their yearly meetings. This expression of his
+public testimony, he continued annually on the same occasion. He wrote
+also several Tracts with the same design, one of which, published in the
+year 1718, he addressed to the elders of his own church, on the
+inconsistency of compelling people and their posterity to serve them
+continually and arbitrarily, and without any proper recompense for their
+services.
+
+The next was Ralph Sandiford, a merchant in Philadelphia. This worthy
+person had many offers of pecuniary assistance, which would have
+advanced him in life, but he declined them all because they came from
+persons who had acquired their independence by the oppression of their
+slaves. He was very earnest in endeavouring to prevail upon his friends,
+both, in and out of the society, to liberate those whom they held in
+bondage. At length he determined upon a work called the _Mystery of
+Iniquity_, in a brief examination of the practice of the times. This he
+published in the year 1780, though the chief judge had threatened him if
+he should give it to the world, and he circulated it free of expense
+wherever he believed it would be useful. The above work was excellent as
+a composition; the language of it was correct; the style manly and
+energetic; and it abounded with facts, sentiments, and quotations,
+which, while, they showed the virtue and talents of the author, rendered
+it a valuable appeal in behalf of the African cause.
+
+The next public advocate was Benjamin Lay[A], who lived at Abington, at
+the distance of twelve or fourteen miles from Philadelphia. Benjamin Lay
+was known, when in England, to the royal family of that day, into whose
+private presence he was admitted. On his return to America, he took an
+active part in behalf of the oppressed Africans. In the year 1737, he
+published a _Treatise on Slave-Keeping_. This he gave away among his
+neighbours and others, but more particularly among the rising youth,
+many of whom he visited in their respective schools. He applied also to
+several of the governors for interviews, with whom he held conferences
+on the subject. Benjamin Lay was a man of strong understanding and of
+great integrity, but of warm and irritable feelings, and more
+particularly so when he was called forth on any occasion in which the
+oppressed Africans were concerned; for he had lived in the island of
+Barbados, and he had witnessed there scenes of cruelty towards them
+which had greatly disturbed his mind, and which unhinged it, as it were,
+whenever the subject of their sufferings was brought before him. Hence,
+if others did not think precisely as he did, when he conversed with them
+on the subject, he was apt to go out of due bounds. In bearing what he
+believed to be his testimony against this system of oppression, he
+adopted sometimes a singularity of manner, by which, as conveying
+demonstration of a certain eccentricity of character, he diminished in
+some degree his usefulness to the cause which he had undertaken; as far,
+indeed, as this eccentricity might have the effect of preventing others
+from joining him in his pursuit, lest they should be thought singular
+also, so far it must be allowed that he ceased to become beneficial. But
+there can be no question, on the other hand, that his warm and
+enthusiastic manners awakened the attention of many to the cause, and
+gave them first impressions concerning it, which they never afterwards
+forgot, and which rendered them useful to it in the subsequent part of
+their lives.
+
+[Footnote A: Benjamin Lay attended the meetings for worship, or
+associated himself with the religious society of the Quakers. His wife,
+too, was an approved minister of the Gospel in that society; but I
+believe he was not long an acknowledged member of it himself.]
+
+The person who laboured next in the society, in behalf of the oppressed
+Africans, was John Woolman.
+
+John Woolman was born at Northampton, in the county of Burlington and
+province of Western New Jersey, in the year 1720. In his very early
+youth he attended, in an extraordinary manner, to the religious
+impressions which he perceived upon his mind, and began to have an
+earnest solicitude about treading in the right path. "From what I had
+read and heard," says he, in his Journal[A], "I believed there had been
+in past ages, people who walked in uprightness before God in a degree
+exceeding any, that I knew or heard of, now living. And the apprehension
+of there being less steadiness and firmness among people of this age,
+than in past ages, often troubled me while I was a child." An anxious
+desire to do away, as far as himself was concerned, this merited
+reproach, operated as one among other causes to induce him to be
+particularly watchful over his thoughts and actions, and to endeavour to
+attain that purity of heart, without which he conceived there could be
+no perfection of the Christian character. Accordingly, in the
+twenty-second year of his age, he had given such proof of the integrity
+of his life, and of his religious qualifications, that he became an
+acknowledged minister of the Gospel in his own society.
+
+[Footnote A: This short sketch of the life and labours of John Woolman,
+is made up from his Journal.]
+
+At a time prior to his entering upon the ministry, being in low
+circumstances, he agreed for wages to "attend shop for a person at Mount
+Holly, and to keep his books." In this situation we discover, by an
+occurrence that happened, that he had thought seriously on the subject,
+and that he had conceived proper views of the Christian unlawfulness of
+slavery. "My employer," says he, "having a Negro woman, sold her, and
+desired me to write a bill of sale, the man being waiting who bought
+her. The thing was sudden, and though the thought of writing an
+instrument of slavery for one of my fellow-creatures made me feel
+uneasy, yet I remembered I was hired by the year, that it was my master
+who directed me to do it, and that it was an elderly man, a member of
+our society, who bought her. So through weakness I gave way and wrote,
+but, at executing it, I was so afflicted in my mind, that I said before
+my master and the friend, that I believed slave-keeping to be a practice
+inconsistent with the Christian religion. This in some degree abated my
+uneasiness; yet, as often as I reflected seriously upon it, I thought I
+should have been clearer, if I had desired to have been excused from it,
+as a thing against my conscience; for such it was. And some time after
+this, a young man of our society spoke to me to write a conveyance of a
+slave to him, he having lately taken a Negro into his house. I told him
+I was not easy to write it; for though many of our meeting, and in other
+places, kept slaves, I still believed the practice was not right, and
+desired to be excused from the writing. I spoke to him in good-will; and
+he told me that keeping slaves was not altogether agreeable to his mind,
+but that the slave being a gift to his wife he had accepted of her."
+
+We may easily conceive that a person so scrupulous and tender on this
+subject, (as indeed John Woolman was on all others,) was in the way of
+becoming in time more eminently serviceable to his oppressed
+fellow-creatures. We have seen already the good seed sown in his heart,
+and it seems to have wanted only providential seasons and occurrences to
+be brought into productive fruit. Accordingly we find that a journey,
+which he took as a minister of the Gospel in 1746 through the provinces
+of Maryland, Virginia, and, North Carolina, which were then more noted
+than others for the number of slaves in them, contributed to prepare him
+as an instrument for the advancement of this great cause. The following
+are his own observations upon this journey:--"Two things were remarkable
+to me in this journey; first, in regard to my entertainment. When I ate,
+drank, and lodged free-cost, with people who lived in ease on the hard
+labour of their slaves, I felt uneasy; and, as my mind was inward to the
+Lord, I found, from place to place, this uneasiness return upon me at
+times through the whole visit. Where the masters bore a good share of
+the burden and lived frugally, so that their servants were well provided
+for; and their labour moderate, I felt more easy; but where they lived
+in a costly way, and laid heavy burdens on their slaves, my exercise was
+often great, and I frequently had conversations with them in private
+concerning it. Secondly, this trade of importing slaves from their
+native country being much encouraged among them, and the white people
+and their children so generally living without much labour, was
+frequently the subject of my serious thoughts: and I saw in these
+southern provinces so many vices and corruptions, increased by this
+trade and this way of life, that it appeared to me as a gloom over the
+land."
+
+From the year 1747 to the year 1758, he seems to have been occupied
+chiefly as a minister of religion, but in the latter year he published a
+work upon slave-keeping; and in the same year, while travelling within
+the compass of his own monthly meeting, a circumstance happened which
+kept alive his attention to the same Subjects.
+
+"About this time" says he, "a person at some distance lying sick, his
+brother came to me to write his will. I knew he had slaves, and asking
+his brother was told he intended to leave them as slaves to his
+children. As writing was a profitable employ, and as offending sober
+people was disagreeable to my inclination, I was straitened in my mind,
+but as I looked to the Lord he inclined my heart to his testimony; and I
+told the man that I believed the practice of continuing slavery to this
+people was not right, and that I had a scruple in my mind against doing
+writings of that kind; that, though many in our society kept them as
+slaves, still I was not easy to be concerned in it, and desired to be
+excused from going to write the will. I spoke to him in the fear of the
+Lord; and he made no reply to what I said, but went away: he also had
+some concerns in the practice, and I thought he was displeased with me.
+In this case I had a confirmation, that acting contrary to present
+outward interest from a motive of Divine love, and in regard to truth
+and righteousness, opens the way to a treasure better than silver, and
+to a friendship exceeding the friendship of men."
+
+From 1753 to 1755, two circumstances of a similar kind took place, which
+contributed greatly to strengthen him in the path he had taken; for in
+both these cases the persons who requested him to make their wills were
+so impressed by the principle upon which he refused them, and by his
+manner of doing it, that they bequeathed liberty to their slaves.
+
+In the year 1756, he made a religious visit to several of the society in
+Long Island. Here it was that the seed, now long fostered by the genial
+influences of Heaven, began to burst forth into fruit; Till this time he
+seems to have been a passive instrument, attending only to such
+circumstances as came in his way on this subject. But now he became an
+active one, looking out for circumstances for the exercise of his
+labours.
+
+"My mind," says he; "was deeply engaged in this visit, both in public
+and private; and at several places, observing that members kept slaves,
+I found myself under a necessity, in a friendly way, to labour with
+them, on that subject, expressing, as the way opened, the inconsistency
+of that practice with the parity of the Christian religion, and the ill
+effects of it as manifested amongst us."
+
+In the year 1757, he felt, his mind so deeply interested on the same
+subject, that he resolved to travel over Maryland, Virginia, and North
+Carolina, in order to try to convince persons, principally in his own
+society, of the inconsistency of holding slaves. He joined his brother
+with him in this arduous service. Having passed the Susquehanna into
+Maryland, he began to experience great agitation of mind. "Soon after I
+entered this province," says he, "a deep and painful exercise came upon
+me, which I often had some feeling of since my mind was drawn towards
+these parts, and with which I had acquainted my brother, before we
+agreed to join as companions."
+
+"As the people in this and the southern provinces live much on the
+labour of slaves, many of whom are used hardly, my concern was that I
+might attend with singleness of heart to the voice of the true Shepherd,
+and be so supported, as to remain unmoved at the faces of men."
+
+It is impossible for me to follow him in detail, through this long and
+interesting journey, when I consider the bounds I have prescribed to
+myself in this work. I shall say, therefore, what I propose to offer
+generally, and in a few words.
+
+It appears that he conversed with persons occasionally, who were not of
+his own society, with a view of answering their arguments, and of
+endeavouring to evince the wickedness and impolicy of slavery. In
+discoursing with these, however strenuous he might appear, he seems
+never to have departed from a calm, modest, and yet dignified and even
+friendly demeanour. At the public meetings for discipline, held by his
+own society in these provinces, he endeavoured to display the same
+truths, and in the same manner, but particularly to the elders of his
+own society, exhorting them, as the most conspicuous rank, to be careful
+of their conduct, and to give a bright example in the liberation of
+their slaves. He visited, also, families for the same purpose: and he
+had the well-earned satisfaction of finding his admonitions kindly
+received by some, and of seeing a disposition in others to follow the
+advice he had given them.
+
+In the year 1758, he attended the yearly meeting at Philadelphia, where
+he addressed his brethren on the propriety of dealing with such members
+as should hereafter purchase slaves. On the discussion of this point he
+spoke a second time, and this to such effect that, he had the
+satisfaction at this meeting to see minutes made more fully than any
+before, and a committee appointed for the advancement of the great
+object, to which he had now been instrumental in turning the attention
+of many, and to witness a considerable spreading of the cause. In the
+same year, also, he joined himself with two others of the society to
+visit such members of it as possessed slaves in Chester county. In this
+journey he describes himself to have met with several who were pleased
+with his visit, but to have found difficulties with others, towards
+whom, however, he felt a sympathy and tenderness, on account of their
+being entangled by the spirit of the world.
+
+In the year 1759, he visited several of the society who held slaves in
+Philadelphia. In about three months afterwards, he travelled there
+again, in company with John Churchman, to see others under similar
+circumstances. He then went to different places on the same errand. In
+this last journey he went alone. After this he joined himself to John
+Churchman again, but he confined his labours to his own province. Here
+he had the pleasure of finding that the work prospered. Soon after this
+he took Samuel Eastburne as a coadjutor, and pleaded the cause of the
+poor Africans with many of the society in Bucks county, who held them in
+bondage there.
+
+In the year 1760, he travelled, in company with his friend Samuel
+Eastburne, to Rhode Island, to promote the same object. This island had
+been long noted for its trade to Africa for slaves. He found at Newport,
+the great sea-port town belonging to it, that a number of them had been
+lately imported. He felt his mind deeply impressed on this account. He
+was almost over-powered in consequence of it, and became ill. He thought
+once of prompting a petition to the legislature, to discourage all such
+importations in future. He then thought of going and speaking to the
+House of Assembly, which was then sitting; but he was discouraged from
+both these proceedings. He held, however, conference with many of his
+own society in the meeting-house chamber, where the subject of his visit
+was discussed on both sides with a calm and peaceable spirit. Many of
+those present manifested the concern they felt at their former
+practices, and others a desire of taking suitable care of their slaves
+at their decease. From Newport he proceeded to Nantucket; but observing
+the members of the society there to have few or no slaves, he exhorted
+them to persevere in abstaining from the use of them, and returned home.
+
+In the year 1761, he visited several families in Pennsylvania, and, in
+about three months afterwards, others about Shrewsbury and Squan in New
+Jersey. On his return he added a part to the treatise before published
+on the keeping of care which had been growing upon him for some years.
+
+In the year 1762, he printed, published, and distributed this treatise.
+
+In 1767, he went on foot to the western shores of the same province on a
+religious visit. After having crossed the Susquehanna, his old feelings
+returned to him; for coming amongst people living in outward ease and
+greatness, chiefly on the labour of slaves, his heart was much affected,
+and he waited with humble resignation to learn how he should further
+perform his duty to this injured people. The travelling on foot, though
+it was agreeable to the state of his mind, he describes to have been
+wearisome to his body. He felt himself weakly at times, in consequence
+of it, but yet continued to travel on. At one of the quarterly meetings
+of the society, being in great sorrow and heaviness, and under deep
+exercise on account of the miseries of the poor Africans, he expressed
+himself freely to those present, who held them in bondage. He expatiated
+on the tenderness and loving-kindness of the apostles, as manifested in
+labours, perils, and sufferings, towards the poor Gentiles, and
+contracted their treatment of the Gentiles with it, whom he described in
+the persons of their slaves; and was much satisfied with the result of
+his discourse.
+
+From this time we collect little more, from his journal concerning him,
+than that, in 1772, he embarked for England on a religious visit. After
+his arrival there, he travelled through many counties, preaching in
+different meetings of the society, till he came to the city of York. But
+even here, though he was far removed from the sight of those whose
+interests he had so warmly espoused, he was not forgetful of their
+wretched condition. At the quarterly meeting for that county, he brought
+their case before, those present in an affecting manner. He exhorted
+these to befriend their cause. He remarked that as they, the society,
+when under outward sufferings, had often found a concern to lay them
+before the legislature, and thereby, in the Lord's time, had obtained
+relief; so he recommended this oppressed part of the creation to their
+notice, that they might, as, the way opened, represent their sufferings
+as individuals, if not as a religious society, to those in authority in
+this land. This was the last opportunity that he had of interesting
+himself in behalf of this injured people for soon afterwards he was
+seized with the small-pox at the house of a friend in the city of York,
+where he died.
+
+The next person belonging to the society of the Quakers, who laboured in
+behalf of the oppressed Africans, was Anthony Benezet. He was born
+before, and he lived after, John Woolman; of course he was contemporary
+with him. I place him after John Woolman, because he was not so much
+known as a labourer, till two or three years after the other had begin
+to move in the same cause.
+
+Anthony Benezet was born at St. Quintin, in Picardy, of a respectable
+family, in the year 1713. His father was one of the many Protestants
+who, in consequence of the persecutions which followed the revocation of
+the edict of Nantz, sought an asylum in foreign countries. After a short
+stay in Holland, he settled, with his wife and children, in London, in
+1715.
+
+Anthony Benezet having received from his father a liberal education,
+served an apprenticeship in an eminent mercantile house in London. In
+1731, however, he removed with his family to Philadelphia, where he
+joined in profession with the Quakers. His three brothers then engaged
+in trade, and made considerable pecuniary acquisitions in it. He himself
+might have partaken both of their concerns and of their prosperity; but
+he did not feel himself at liberty to embark in their undertakings. He
+considered the accumulation of wealth as of no importance, when compared
+with the enjoyment of doing good; and he chose the humble situation of a
+schoolmaster, as according best with this notion, believing, that by
+endeavouring to train up youth in knowledge and virtue, he should become
+more extensively useful than in any other way to his fellow-creatures.
+
+He had not been long in his new situation, before he manifested such an
+uprightness of conduct, such a courtesy of manners, such a purity of
+intention, and such a spirit of benevolence, that he attracted the
+notice, and gained the good opinion, of the inhabitants among whom he
+lived. He had ready access to them, in consequence, upon all occasions;
+and, if there were any whom he failed to influence at any of these
+times, he never went away without the possession of their respect.
+
+In the year 1756, when a considerable number of French families were
+removed from Acadia into Pennsylvania, on account of some political
+suspicions, he felt deeply interested about them. In a country where few
+understood their language, they were wretched and helpless; but Anthony
+Benezet endeavoured to soften the rigour of their situation, by his kind
+attention towards them. He exerted himself, also, in their behalf, by
+procuring many contributions for them, which, by the consent of his
+fellow-citizens, were intrusted to his care.
+
+As the principle of benevolence, when duly cultivated, brings forth
+fresh shoots, and becomes enlarged, so we find this amiable person
+extending the sphere of his usefulness by becoming an advocate for the
+oppressed African race. For this service he seems to have been
+peculiarly qualified. Indeed, as in all great works, a variety of
+talents is necessary to bring them to perfection, so Providence seems to
+prepare different men as instruments, with dispositions and
+qualifications so various, that each, in pursuing that line which seems
+to suit him best, contributes to furnish those parts which, when put
+together, make up a complete whole. In this point of view, John Woolman
+found in Anthony Benezet the coadjutor whom, of all others, the cause
+required. The former had occupied himself principally on the subject of
+slavery. The latter went to the root of the evil, and more frequently
+attacked the trade. The former chiefly confined his labours to America,
+and chiefly to those of his own society there. The latter, when he
+wrote, did not write for America only, but for Europe also, and
+endeavoured to spread a knowledge and hatred of the traffic through the
+great society of the world.
+
+One of the means which Anthony Benezet took to promote the cause in
+question, (and an effectual one it proved, as far as it went,) was to
+give his scholars a due knowledge and proper impressions concerning it.
+Situated as they were likely to be in after-life, in a country where,
+slavery, was a custom, he thus prepared many, and this annually, for the
+promotion of his plans.
+
+To enlighten others, and to give them a similar bias, he had recourse to
+different measures from time to time. In the almanacs published annually
+in Philadelphia, he procured articles to be inserted, which he believed
+would attract the notice of the reader, and make him pause, at least for
+a while, as to the licitness of, the Slave Trade. He wrote also, as he
+saw occasion, in the public papers of the day. From small things he
+proceeded to greater. He collected, at length, further information on
+the subject, and, winding it up with observations and reflections, he
+produced several little tracts, which he circulated successively (but
+generally at his, own expense), as he considered them adapted to the
+temper and circumstances of the times.
+
+In the course of this his employment, having found some who had approved
+his tracts, and, to whom, on that account, he wished to write, and
+sending his tracts to others, to whom he thought it proper to introduce
+them by letter, he found himself engaged in a correspondence which much
+engrossed his time, but which proved of great importance in procuring
+many advocates for his cause.
+
+In the year 1762, when he had obtained a still greater store of
+information, he published a larger work. This, however, he entitle _A
+short Account of that part of Africa inhabited by the Negroes_ In 1767
+he published _A Caution and Warning to Great Britain and her colonies on
+the calamitous state of the enslaved Negroes in the British Dominions_;
+and soon after this appeared, _An Historical Account of Guinea, its
+Situation, Produce, and the general Disposition of its Inhabitants: with
+an Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of the Slave Trade, its Nature,
+and Calamitous Effects._ This pamphlet contained a clear and distinct
+development of the subject, from the best authorities. It contained
+also, the sentiments of many enlightened upon it; and it became
+instrumental beyond any other book ever before published, in
+disseminating a proper knowledge and detestation of this trade.
+
+Anthony Benezet may be considered as one of the most zealous, vigilant,
+and active advocates which the cause of the oppressed Africans ever had.
+He seemed to have been born and to have lived for the promotion of it
+and therefore he never omitted any the least opportunity of serving it.
+If a person called upon him who was going a journey his first thoughts
+usually were how he could make him an instrument in its favour; he
+either gave him tracts to distribute or he sent letters by him, or he
+gave him some commission on the subject; so that he was the means of
+employing several persons at the same time, in various parts of America;
+in advancing the work he had undertaken.
+
+In the same manner he availed himself of every other circumstance, as
+far as he could, to the same end. When he heard that Mr. Granville Sharp
+had obtained; in the year 1772, the noble verdict in the cause of
+Somerset the slave, he opened a correspondence with him which he kept
+up, that there might be an union of action between them for the future,
+as far as it could be effected, and that they might each give
+encouragement to the other to proceed.
+
+He opened also a correspondence with George Whitfield and John Wesley
+that these might assist him in promoting the cause of the oppressed.
+
+He wrote also a letter to the Countess of Huntingdon on the following
+subject:--She had founded a college, at the recommendation of George
+Whitfield, called the Orphan-house near Savannah, in Georgia, and had
+endowed it. The object of this institution was to furnish scholastic
+instruction to the poor, and to prepare some of them for the ministry.
+George Whitfield, ever attentive to the cause of the poor Africans,
+thought that this institution might have been useful to them also; but
+soon after his death, they who succeeded him bought slaves, and these in
+unusual numbers to extend the rice and indigo plantations belonging to
+the college. The letter then in question was written by Anthony Benezet,
+in order to lay before the Countess, as a religious woman, the misery
+she was occasioning in Africa, by allowing the managers of her college
+in Georgia to give encouragement to the Slave Trade. The Countess
+replied, that such a measure should never have her countenance, and that
+she would take care to prevent it.
+
+On discovering that the Abbe Raynal had brought out his celebrated work,
+in which he manifested a tender feeling in behalf of the injured
+Africans, he entered into a correspondence with him, hoping to make him
+yet more useful to their cause.
+
+Finding, also, in the year 1783 that the Slave Trade, which had greatly
+declined during the American war, was reviving, he addressed a pathetic
+letter to our Queen, (as I mentioned in the last chapter,) who, on
+hearing the high character of the writer of it from Benjamin West,
+received it with marks of peculiar condescension and attention. The
+following is a copy of it:--
+
+
+    TO CHARLOTTE, QUEEN OF GREAT BRITAIN.
+
+    Impressed with a sense of religious duty, and encouraged by the
+    opinion generally entertained of thy benevolent disposition to
+    succor the distressed, I take the liberty; very respectfully, to
+    offer to thy perusal some tracts, which, I believe, faithfully
+    describe the suffering condition of many hundred thousands of
+    our fellow-creatures of the African race, great numbers of whom,
+    rent from every tender connexion in life, are annually taken
+    from their native land; to endure, in the American islands and
+    plantations, a most rigorous and cruel slavery; whereby many,
+    very many of them, are brought to a melancholy and untimely end.
+
+    When it is considered that the inhabitants of Great Britain, who
+    are themselves so eminently blessed in the enjoyment of
+    religious and civil liberty, have long been, and yet are, very
+    deeply concerned in this flagrant violation of the common rights
+    of mankind, and that even its national authority is exerted in
+    support of the African Slave Trade, there is much reason to
+    apprehend that this has been, and, as long as the evil exists,
+    will continue to be, an occasion of drawing down the Divine
+    displeasure on the nation and its dependencies. May these
+    considerations induce thee to interpose thy kind endeavours in
+    behalf of this greatly injured people, whose abject situation
+    gives them an additional claim to the pity and assistance of the
+    generous mind, inasmuch as they are altogether deprived of the
+    means of soliciting effectual relief for themselves; that so
+    thou mayest not only be a blessed instrument in the hand of him
+    'by whom kings reign and princes decree justice,' to avert the
+    awful judgments by which the empire has already been so
+    remarkably shaken, but that the blessings of thousands ready to
+    perish may come upon thee, at a time when the superior
+    advantages attendant on thy situation in this world will no
+    longer be of any avail to thy consolation and support.
+
+    To the tracts on this subject to which I have thus ventured to
+    crave thy particular attention, I have added some which at
+    different times I have believed it my duty to publish[A], and
+    which, I trust, will afford thee some satisfaction, their design
+    being for the furtherance of that universal peace and good-will
+    amongst men, which the Gospel was intended to introduce.
+
+    [Footnote A: These related to the principles of the religious
+    society of the Quakers.]
+
+    "I hope thou wilt kindly excuse the freedom used on this
+    occasion by an ancient man, whose mind, for more than forty
+    years past, has been much separated from the common intercourse
+    of the world, and long painfully exercised in the consideration
+    of the miseries under which so large a part of mankind, equally
+    with us the objects of redeeming love, are suffering the most
+    unjust and grievous oppression, and who sincerely desires thy
+    temporal and eternal felicity, and that of thy royal consort.
+
+    "ANTHONY BENEZET."
+
+
+Anthony Benezet, besides the care he bestowed upon forwarding the cause
+of the oppressed Africans in different parts of the world, found time to
+promote the comforts, and improve the condition of those, in the state
+in which he lived. Apprehending that much advantage would arise both to
+them and the public from instructing them in common learning, he
+zealously promoted the establishment of a school for that purpose. Much
+of the two last years of his life he devoted to a personal attendance on
+this school, being earnestly desirous that they who came to it might be
+better qualified for the enjoyment of that freedom to which great
+numbers of them had been then restored. To this he sacrificed the
+superior emoluments of his former school, and his bodily ease also,
+although the weakness of his constitution seemed to demand indulgence.
+By his last will he directed, that, after the decease of his widow, his
+whole little fortune (the savings of the industry of fifty years)
+should, except a few very small legacies, be applied to the support of
+it. During his attendance upon it he had the happiness to find, (and his
+situation enabled him to make the comparison,) that Providence had been
+equally liberal to the Africans in genius and talents as to other
+people.
+
+After a few days' illness, this excellent man died at Philadelphia, in
+the spring of 1784. The interment of his remains was attended by several
+thousands of all ranks, professions, and parties, who united in
+deploring their loss. The mournful procession was closed by some
+hundreds of those poor Africans who had been personally benefited by his
+labours, and whose behaviour on the occasion showed the gratitude and
+affection they considered to be due to him as their own private
+benefactor, as well as the benefactor of their whole race.
+
+Such, then, were the labours of the Quakers in America; of individuals,
+from 1718 to 1784, and of the body at large, from 1696 to 1787, in this
+great cause of humanity and religion. Nor were the effects produced from
+these otherwise than corresponding with what might have been expected
+from such an union of exertion in such a cause; for both the evils, that
+is, the evil of buying and selling, and the evil of using slaves, ceased
+at length with the members of this benevolent society. The leaving off
+all concern with the Slave Trade took place first. The abolition of
+slavery, though it followed, was not so speedily accomplished; for,
+besides the loss of property, when slaves were manumitted, without any
+pecuniary consideration in return, their owners had to struggle, in
+making them free, against the laws and customs of the times. In
+Pennsylvania, where the law in this respect was the most favourable, the
+parties wishing to give freedom to a slave were obliged to enter into a
+bond for the payment of thirty pounds currency, in case the said slave
+should become chargeable for maintenance. In New Jersey the terms were
+far less favorable, as the estate of the owner remained liable to the
+consequences of misconduct in the slave, or even in his posterity. In
+the southern parts of America manumission was not permitted but on terms
+amounting nearly to a prohibition. But, notwithstanding these
+difficulties, the Quakers could not be deterred, as they became
+convinced of the unlawfulness of holding men in bondage, from doing that
+which they believed to be right. Many liberated their slaves, whatever
+the consequences were; and some gave the most splendid example in doing
+it, not only by consenting, as others did, thus to give up their
+property, and to incur the penalties of manumission, but by calculating
+and giving what was due to them, over and above their food and clothing,
+for wages[A] from the beginning of their slavery to the day when their
+liberation commenced. Thus manumission went on, some sacrificing more;
+and others less; some granting it sooner, and others later; till, in the
+year 1787[B] there was not a slave in the possession of an acknowledged
+Quaker.
+
+[Footnote A: One of the brightest instances was that afforded by Warner
+Mifflin. He gave unconditional liberty to his slaves. He paid all the
+adults, on their discharge, the sum, which arbitrators, mutually chosen,
+awarded them.]
+
+[Footnote B: Previously to the year 1787, several of the states had made
+the terms of manumission more easy.]
+
+Having given to the reader the history of the third class of forerunners
+and coadjutors, as it consisted of the Quakers in America, I am now to
+continue it, as it consisted of an union of these with others on the
+same continent, in the year 1774, in behalf of the African race. To do
+this, I shall begin with the causes which led to the production of this
+great event.
+
+And, in the first place, as example is more powerful than precept, we
+cannot suppose that the Quakers could have shown these noble instances
+of religious principle, without supposing also that individuals of other
+religious denominations would be morally instructed by them. They who
+lived in the neighborhood where they took place, must have become
+acquainted with the motives which led to them. Some of them must at
+least have praised the action, though they might not themselves have
+been ripe to follow the example: nor is it at all improbable that these
+might be led, in the course of the workings of their own minds, to a
+comparison between their own conduct and that of the Quakers on this
+subject, in which they themselves might appear to be less worthy in
+their own eyes. And as there is sometimes a spirit of rivalship among
+the individuals of religious sects, where the character of one is
+sounded forth as higher than that of another; this, if excited by such a
+circumstance, would probably operate for good. It must have been
+manifest also to many, after a lapse of time, that there was no danger
+in what the Quakers had done, and that there was even sound policy in
+the measure. But, whatever were the several causes, certain it is, that
+the example of the Quakers in leaving off all concern with the Slave
+Trade, and in liberating their slaves, (scattered, as they were, over
+various parts of America,) contributed to produce in many of a different
+religious denomination from themselves, a more tender disposition than
+had been usual towards the African race.
+
+But a similar disposition towards these oppressed people was created in
+others, by means of other circumstances or causes. In the early part of
+the eighteenth century, Judge Sewell of New England came forward as a
+zealous advocate for them: he addressed a memorial to the legislature,
+which he called, _The Selling of Joseph_, and in which he pleaded their
+cause both as a lawyer and, a Christian. This memorial produced an
+effect upon many, but particularly upon those of his own persuasion; and
+from this time the Presbyterians appear to have encouraged a sympathy in
+their favour.
+
+In the year 1739, the celebrated George Whitfield became an instrument
+in turning the attention of many others to their hard case, and of
+begetting in these a fellow sympathy towards them. This laborious
+minister, having been deeply affected with what he had seen in the
+course of his religious travels in America, thought it his duty, to
+address a letter from Georgia to the inhabitants of Maryland, Virginia,
+and North and South Carolina. This letter was printed in the year above
+mentioned, and is in part as follows:--
+
+
+    As I lately passed through your provinces in my way hither, I
+    was sensibly touched with a fellow-feeling for the miseries of
+    the poor negroes. Whether it be lawful for Christians to buy
+    slaves, and thereby encourage the nations, from whom they are
+    bought, to be at perpetual war with each other, I shall not take
+    upon me to determine. Sure I am, it is sinful, when they have
+    bought them to use them as bad as though they were brutes, nay,
+    worse; and whatever particular exceptions there may be, (as I
+    would charitably hope there are some,) I fear the generality of
+    you who own negroes are liable to such a charge; for your
+    slaves, I believe, work as hard, if not harder, than the horses
+    whereon you ride. These, after they have done their work, are
+    fed and taken proper care of; but many negroes when wearied with
+    labour, in your plantations, have been obliged to grind their
+    corn after their return home: your dogs are caressed and fondled
+    at your table, but your slaves, who are frequently styled dogs
+    or beasts, have not an equal privilege; they are scarce
+    permitted to pick up the crumbs which fall from their master's
+    table: not to mention what numbers have been given up to the
+    inhuman usage of cruel taskmasters, who, by their unrelenting
+    scourges have ploughed their backs and made long furrows, and at
+    length brought them even unto death. When, passing along, I have
+    viewed your plantations cleared and cultivated, many spacious
+    houses built and the owners of them faring sumptuously every
+    day, my blood has frequently almost run cold within me, to
+    consider how many of your slaves had neither convenient food to
+    eat, nor proper raiment to put on, notwithstanding most of the
+    comforts you enjoy were solely owing to their indefatigable
+    labours.
+
+
+The letter, from which this is an extract, produced a desirable effect
+upon many of those who perused it, but particularly upon such as began
+to be seriously disposed in these times. And as George Whitfield
+continued a firm friend to the poor Africans, never losing an
+opportunity of serving them, he interested, in the course of his useful
+life, many thousands of his followers in their favour.
+
+To this account it may be added, that from the year 1762 ministers, who
+were in the connection of John Wesley, began to be settled in America,
+and that as these were friends to the oppressed Africans also, so they
+contributed in their turn[A] to promote a softness of feeling towards
+them among those of their own persuasion.
+
+[Footnote A: It must not be forgotten, that the example of the Moravians
+had its influence also in directing men to their duty towards these
+oppressed people; for though, when they visited this part of the world
+for their conversion, they never meddled with the political state of
+things, by recommending it to masters to alter the condition of their
+slaves, as believing religion could give comfort in the most abject
+situations in life, yet they uniformly freed those slaves who came into
+their own possession.]
+
+In consequence then of these and other causes, a considerable number of
+persons of various religious denominations, had appeared at different
+times in America, besides the Quakers, who, though they had not
+distinguished themselves by resolutions and manumissions as religious
+bodies, were yet highly friendly to the African cause. This friendly
+disposition began to manifest itself about the year 1770; for when a few
+Quakers, as individuals, began at that time to form little associations
+in the middle provinces of North America, to discourage the introduction
+of slaves among people in their own neighbourhoods, who were not of
+their own Society, and to encourage the manumission of those already in
+bondage, they, were joined as colleagues by several persons of this
+description[A], who co-operated with them in the promotion of their
+design.
+
+[Footnote A: It then appeared that individuals among those of the Church
+of England, Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists, and others had
+begun in a few instances to liberate their slaves.]
+
+This disposition, however, became more manifest in the year 1772; for
+the house of burgesses of Virginia presented a petition to the king,
+beseeching his majesty to remove all those restraints on his governors
+of that colony, which inhibited their assent to such laws as might check
+that inhuman and impolitic commerce, the Slave Trade: and it is
+remarkable, that the refusal of the British government to permit the
+Virginians to exclude slaves from among them by law, was enumerated
+afterwards among the public reasons for separating from the mother
+country.
+
+But this friendly disposition was greatly increased in the year 1773, by
+the literary labours of Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia[B], who, I
+believe, is a member of the Presbyterian Church: for in this year, at
+the instigation of Anthony Benezet, he took up the cause of the
+oppressed Africans in a little work, which he entitled, _An Address to
+the Inhabitants of the British Settlements, on the Slavery of the
+Negroes_; and soon afterwards in another, which was a vindication of the
+first, in answer to an acrimonious attach by a West Indian planter.
+These publications contained many new observations; they were written in
+a polished style; and while they exhibited the erudition and talents,
+they showed the liberality and benevolence of the author. Having had a
+considerable circulation, they spread conviction among many, and
+promoted the cause for which they had been so laudably undertaken. Of
+the great increase of friendly disposition towards the African cause in
+this very year, we have this remarkable proof: that when the Quakers,
+living in East and West Jersey, wished to petition the legislature to
+obtain an act of assembly for the more equitable manumission of slaves
+in that province, so many others of different persuasions joined them,
+that the petition was signed by upwards of three thousand persons.
+
+[Footnote B: Dr. Rush has been better known since for his other literary
+works, such as his _Medical Dissertations_, his _Treatises on the
+Discipline of Schools_, _Criminal Law_, &c.]
+
+But in the next year, or in the year 1774[A], the increased good-will
+towards the Africans became so apparent, but more particularly in
+Pennsylvania, where the Quakers were more numerous than in any other
+state, that they, who considered themselves more immediately as the
+friends of these injured people, thought it right to avail themselves of
+it: and accordingly James Pemberton, one of the most conspicuous of the
+Quakers in Pennsylvania, and Dr. Rush, one of the most conspicuous of
+those belonging to the various other religious communities in that
+province, undertook, in conjunction with others, the important task of
+bringing those into a society who were friendly to this cause. In this
+undertaking they succeeded. And hence arose that union of the Quakers
+with others, to which I have been directing the attention of the reader,
+and by which the third class of forerunners and coadjutors becomes now
+complete. This society, which was confined to Pennsylvania, was the
+first ever formed in America, in which there was an union of persons of
+different religious denominations in behalf of the African race.
+
+[Footnote A: In this year, Elhanan Winchester, a supporter of the
+doctrine of universal redemption, turned the attention of many of his
+hearers to this subject, both by private interference, and by preaching
+expressly upon it.]
+
+But this society had scarcely begun to act, when the war broke out
+between England and America, which had the effect of checking its
+operations. This was considered as a severe blow upon it. But as those
+things which appear most to our disadvantage, turn out often the most to
+our benefit, so the war, by giving birth to the independence of America,
+was ultimately favourable to its progress. For as this contrast had
+produced during its continuance, so it left, when it was over, a general
+enthusiasm for liberty. Many talked of little else but of the freedom
+they had gained. These were naturally led to the consideration of those
+among them who were groaning in bondage. They began to feel for their
+hard case. They began to think that they should not deserve the new
+blessing which they had acquired if they denied it to others. Thus the
+discussions, which originated in this contest, became the occasion of
+turning the attention of many, who might not otherwise have thought of
+it, towards the miserable condition of the slaves.
+
+Nor were writers wanting, who, influenced by considerations on the war,
+and the independence resulting from it, made their works subservient to
+the same benevolent end. A work, entitled _A Serious Address to the
+Rulers of America on the Inconsistency of their Conduct respecting
+Slavery, forming a Contrast between the Encroachments of England on
+American Liberty and American Injustice in tolerating Slavery_; which
+appeared in 1783, was particularly instrumental in producing this
+effect. This excited a more than usual attention to the case of these
+oppressed people, and where most of all it could be useful; for the
+author compared in two opposite columns the animated speeches and
+resolutions of the members of congress in behalf of their own liberty
+with their conduct in continuing slavery to others. Hence the
+legislature began to feel the inconsistency of the practice; and so far
+had the sense of this inconsistency spread there, that when the
+delegates met from each state to consider of a federal union, there was
+a desire that the abolition of the Slave Trade should be one of the
+articles in it. This was, however, opposed by the delegates from North
+and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Georgia, the five states
+which had the greatest concern in slaves. But even these offered to
+agree to the article, provided a condition was annexed to it, (which was
+afterwards done,) that the power of such abolition should not commence
+in the legislature till the 1st of January, 1808.
+
+In consequence then of these different circumstances, the Society of
+Pennsylvania, the object of which was "for promoting the abolition of
+slavery and the relief of free negroes unlawfully held in bondage,"
+became so popular, that in the year 1787 it was thought desirable to
+enlarge it. Accordingly several new members were admitted into it. The
+celebrated Dr. Franklin, who had long warmly espoused the cause of the
+injured Africans, was appointed president; James Pemberton and Jonathan
+Penrose were appointed vice-presidents; Dr. Benjamin Rush and Tench
+Coxe, secretaries; James Star, treasurer; William Lewis, John D. Coxe,
+Miers Fisher, and William Rawle, counsellors; Thomas Harrison, Nathan
+Boys, James Whiteall, James Reed, John Todd, Thomas Armatt, Norris
+Jones, Samuel Richards, Francis Bayley, Andrew Carson, John Warner, and
+Jacob Shoemaker, junior, an electing committee; and Thomas Shields,
+Thomas Parker, John Oldden, William Zane, John Warner, and William
+McElhenny, an acting committee for carrying on the purposes of the
+institution.
+
+I shall now only observe further upon this subject, that as a society,
+consisting of an union of the Quakers, with others of other religious
+denominations, was established for Pennsylvania in behalf of the
+oppressed Africans; so different societies, consisting each of a similar
+union of persons, were established in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey,
+Delaware, Maryland, and other states for the same object, and that these
+afterwards held a correspondence and personal communion with each other
+for the promotion of it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Observations on the three classes already introduced.--Coincidence of
+extraordinary circumstances.--Individuals in each of these classes,
+who seem to have had an education as it were to qualify them for
+promoting the cause of the abolition; Sharp and Ramsay in the first;
+Dillwyn in the second; Pemberton and Rush in the third.--These, with
+their respective classes, acted on motives of their own, and
+independently of each other; and yet, from circumstances neither
+foreseen nor known by them, they were in the way of being easily
+united in 1787.--William Dillwyn, the great medium of connexion
+between them all.
+
+
+If the reader will refer to his recollection, he will find that I have
+given the history of three of the classes of the forerunners and
+coadjutors in the great cause of the abolition of the Slave Trade up to
+the time proposed. He will of course expect that I should proceed with
+the history of the fourth. But, as I foresee that, by making certain
+observations upon the classes already introduced in the present, rather
+than in any future, place, I shall be able to give him clearer views on
+the subject, I shall postpone the history of the remaining class to the
+next chapter.
+
+The account which I shall now give, will exhibit a concurrence of
+extraordinary and important circumstances. It will show, first, that in
+each of the three classes now introduced, there were individuals, in the
+year 1787, who had been educated as it were for the purpose of becoming
+peculiarly qualified to act together for the promotion of the abolition
+of the Slave Trade. It will show, secondly, that these, with their
+respective classes, acted upon their own principles, distinctly and
+independently of each other. And lastly, that by means of circumstances,
+which they themselves had neither foreseen nor contrived, a junction
+between them was rendered easily practicable, and that it was beginning
+to take place at the period assigned.
+
+The first class of forerunners and coadjutors consisted principally, as
+it has appeared, of persons in England of various descriptions. These, I
+may observe, had no communication with each other as to any plan for the
+abolition of the Slave Trade. There were two individuals, however, among
+them who were more conspicuous than the rest, namely, Granville Sharp,
+the first labourer, and Mr. Ramsay, the first controversial writer, in
+the cause.
+
+That Granville Sharp received an education as if to become qualified to
+unite with others, in the year 1787, for this important object, must
+have, appeared from the history of his labours, as detailed in several
+of the preceding pages. The same may be said of Mr. Ramsay; for it has
+already appeared that he lived in the island of St. Christopher, where
+he made his observations, and studied the laws, relative to the
+treatment of slaves, for nineteen years.
+
+That Granville Sharp acted on grounds distinct from those in any of the
+other classes is certain. For he knew nothing at this time either of the
+Quakers in England or of those in America, any more than that they
+existed by name. Had it not been for the case of Jonathan Strong, he
+might never have attached himself to the cause. A similar account may be
+given of Mr. Ramsay; for, if it had not been for what he had seen in the
+island of St. Christopher, he had never embarked in it. It was from
+scenes, which he had witnessed there, that he began to feel on the
+subject. These feelings he communicated to others on his return to
+England, and these urged him into action.
+
+With respect to the second class, the reader will recollect that it
+consisted of the Quakers in England: first, of George Fox; then of the
+Quakers as a body; then of individuals belonging to that body, who
+formed themselves into a committee, independently of it, for the
+promotion of the object in question. This committee, it may he
+remembered, consisted of six persons, of whom one was William Dillwyn.
+
+That William Dillwyn became fitted for the station, which he was
+afterwards to take, will be seen shortly. He was born in America, and
+was a pupil of the venerable Benezet, who took pains very early to
+interest his feelings on this great subject. Benezet employed him
+occasionally, I mean in a friendly manner, as his amanuensis, to copy
+his manuscripts for publication, as well as several of his letters
+written in behalf of the cause. This gave his scholar an insight into
+the subject; who, living besides in the land where both the Slave Trade
+and slavery were established, obtained an additional knowledge of them,
+so as to be able to refute many of those objections, to which others,
+for want of local observation, could never have replied.
+
+In the year 1772, Anthony Benezet introduced William Dillwyn by letter
+to several of the principal people of Carolina, with whom he had himself
+corresponded on the sufferings of the poor Africans, and desired him to
+have interviews with them on the subject. He charged him also to be very
+particular in making observations as to what he should see there. This
+journey was of great use to the latter, in fixing him as the friend of
+these oppressed people; for he saw so much of their cruel treatment in
+the course of it, that he felt an anxiety ever afterwards, amounting to
+a duty, to do every thing in his power for their relief.
+
+In the year 1773, William Dillwyn, in conjunction with Richard Smith and
+Daniel Wells, two of his own society, wrote a pamphlet in answer to
+arguments then prevailing, that the manumission of slaves would be
+injurious. This pamphlet--which was entitled, _Brief Considerations on
+Slavery, and the Expediency of its Abolition; with some Hints on the
+Means whereby it may be gradually effected_,--proved that in lieu of the
+usual security required, certain sums paid at the several periods of
+manumission would amply secure the public, as well as the owners of the
+slaves, from any future burdens. In the same year also, when the
+society, joined by several hundreds of others in New Jersey, presented a
+petition to the legislature, (as mentioned in the former chapter,) to
+obtain an act of assembly for the more equitable manumission of slaves
+in that province, William Dillwyn was one of a deputation, which was
+heard at the bar of the assembly for that purpose.
+
+In 1774, he came to England, but his attention was still kept alive to
+the subject; for he was the person by whom Anthony Benezet sent his
+letter to the Countess of Huntingdon, as before related. He was also the
+person to whom the same venerable defender of the African race sent his
+letter, before spoken of, to be forwarded to the Queen.
+
+That William Dillwyn, and those of his own class in England, acted upon
+motives very distinct from those of the former class, may be said with
+truth; for they acted upon the constitutional principles of their own
+society, as incorporated into its discipline: which principles would
+always have incited them to the subversion of slavery, as far as they
+themselves were concerned, whether any other person had abolished it or
+not. To which it may be added, as a further proof of the originality of
+their motives, that the Quakers have had, ever since their institution
+as a religious body, but little intercourse with the world.
+
+The third class, to which I now come, consisted, as we have seen, first
+of the Quakers in America; and secondly, of an union, of these with
+others on the same continent. The principal individuals concerned in
+this union were James Pemberton and Dr. Rush. The former of these,
+having taken an active part in several of the yearly meetings of his own
+society relative to the oppressed Africans, and having been in habits of
+intimacy and friendship with John Woolman and Anthony Benezet, with the
+result of whose labours he was acquainted, may be supposed to have
+become qualified to take a leading station in the promotion of their
+cause. Dr. Rush also had shown himself, as has appeared, an able
+advocate, and had even sustained a controversy in their favour. That the
+two last mentioned acted also on motives of their own, or independently
+of those belonging to the other two classes, when they formed their
+association in Pennsylvania, will be obvious from these circumstances;
+first, that most of those of the first class, who contributed to throw
+the greatest light and odium upon the Slave Trade, had not then made
+their public appearance in the world. And, with respect to the second
+class, the little committee belonging to it had neither been formed nor
+thought of.
+
+And as the individuals in each of the three classes, who have now been
+mentioned, had an education as it were to qualify them for acting
+together in this great cause, and had moved independently of each other;
+so it will appear that, by means of circumstances, which they themselves
+had neither foreseen nor contrived, a junction between them was rendered
+easily practicable, and that it was beginning to take place at the
+period assigned.
+
+To show this, I must first remind the reader, that Anthony Benezet, as
+soon as he heard of the result of the case of Somerset, opened a
+correspondence with Granville Sharp, which was kept up to the
+encouragement of both. In the year 1774, when he learned that William
+Dillwyn was going to England, he gave him letters to that gentleman.
+Thus one of the most conspicuous of the second class was introduced,
+accidentally as it were, to one of the most conspicuous of the first. In
+the year 1775, William Dillwyn went back to America, but, on his return
+to England to settle, he renewed his visits to Granville Sharp. Thus the
+connexion was continued. To these observations I may now add, that
+Samuel Hoare, of the same class as William Dillwyn, had, in consequence
+of the Bishop of Chester's sermon, begun a correspondence in 1784, as
+before mentioned, with Mr. Ramsay, who was of the same class as Mr.
+Sharp. Thus four individuals of the two first classes were in the way of
+an union with one another.
+
+But circumstances equally natural contributed to render an union between
+the members of the second and the third classes easily practicable also.
+For what was more natural than that William Dillwyn, who was born and
+who had resided long in America, should have connexions there? He had
+long cultivated a friendship (not then knowing to what it would lead)
+with James Pemberton. His intimacy with him was like that of a family
+connexion. They corresponded together; they corresponded also as kindred
+hearts, relative to the Slave Trade. Thus two members of the second and
+third classes had opened an intercourse on the subject and thus was
+William Dillwyn the great medium, through whom the members of the two
+classes now mentioned, as well as the members of all the three, might be
+easily united also, if a fit occasion should offer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Fourth class of forerunners and coadjutors up to 1787.--Dr.
+Peckard, vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge, the first of
+these; gives out the Slave Trade as the subject for one of the annual
+prizes.--Author writes and obtains the first of these; reads his
+Dissertation in the Senate-house in the summer of 1785; his feelings on
+the subject during his return home; is desirous of aiding the cause of
+the Africans, but sees great difficulties; determines to publish his
+prize essay for this purpose; is accidentally thrown into the way of
+James Phillips, who introduces him to W. Dillwyn, the connecting medium
+of the three classes before mentioned; and to G. Sharp and Mr. Ramsay,
+and to R. Phillips.
+
+
+I proceed now to the fourth class of forerunners and coadjutors up to
+the year 1787 in the great cause of the abolition of the Slave Trade.
+
+The first of these was Dr. Peckard. This gentleman had distinguished
+himself in the earlier part of his life by certain publications on the
+intermediate state of the soul, and by others in favour of civil and
+religious liberty. To the latter cause he was a warm friend, seldom
+omitting any opportunity of declaring his sentiments in its favour. In
+the course of his preferment he was appointed by Sir John Griffin,
+afterwards Lord Howard of Walden, to the mastership of Magdalen College
+in the University of Cambridge. In this high office he considered it to
+be his duty to support those doctrines which he had espoused when in an
+inferior station; and accordingly, when in the year 1784 it devolved
+upon him to preach a sermon, before the University of Cambridge, he
+chose his favourite subject: in the handling of which he took an
+opportunity of speaking of the Slave Trade in the following nervous
+manner:--
+
+
+    "Now, whether we consider the crime with respect to the
+    individuals concerned in this most barbarous and cruel traffic,
+    or whether we consider it as patronized and encouraged by the
+    laws of the land, it presents to our view an equal degree of
+    enormity. A crime, founded on a dreadful pre-eminence in
+    wickedness--a crime, which being both of individuals and the
+    nation, must sometime draw down upon us the heaviest judgment of
+    Almighty God, who made of one blood all the sons of men, and who
+    gave to all equally a natural right to liberty; and who, ruling
+    all the kingdoms of the earth with equal providential justice,
+    cannot suffer such deliberate, such monstrous iniquity, to pass
+    long unpunished."
+
+
+But Dr. Peckard did not consider this delivery of his testimony, though
+it was given before a learned and religious body, as a sufficient
+discharge of his duty, while any opportunity remained of renewing it
+with effect. And, as such an one offered in the year 1785, when he was
+vice-chancellor of the University, he embraced it. In consequence of his
+office, it devolved upon him to give out two subjects for Latin
+dissertations, one to the middle bachelors, and the other to the senior
+bachelors of arts. They who produced the best were to obtain the prizes.
+To the latter he proposed the following: _Anne liceat Invitos in
+Servitutem dare?_ or, _Is it right to make slaves of others against
+their will?_
+
+This circumstance of giving out subjects for the prizes, though only an
+ordinary measure, became the occasion of my own labours, or of the real
+honour which I feel in being able to consider myself as the next
+coadjutor of this class in the cause of the injured Africans. For it
+happened in this year that, being of the order of senior bachelors, I
+became qualified to write. I had gained a prize for the best Latin
+dissertation in the former year, and, therefore, it was expected that I
+should obtain one in the present, or I should be considered as having
+lost my reputation both in the eyes of the University and of my own
+College. It had happened also, that I had been honoured with the first
+of the prizes[A], in that year, and therefore it was expected again,
+that I should obtain the first on this occasion. The acquisition of the
+second, however honourable, would have been considered as a falling off,
+or as a loss of former fame. I felt myself, therefore, particularly
+called upon to maintain my post. And, with feelings of this kind, I
+began to prepare myself for the question.
+
+[Footnote A: There are two prizes on each subject, one for the best and
+the other for the second-best essays.]
+
+In studying the thesis, I conceived it to point directly to the African
+Slave Trade, and more particularly as I knew that Dr. Peckard, in the
+sermon which I have mentioned, had pronounced so warmly against it. At
+any rate, I determined to give it this construction. But, alas! I was
+wholly ignorant of this subject; and, what was unfortunate, a few weeks
+only were allowed for the composition. I was determined, however, to
+make the best use of my time. I got access to the manuscript papers of a
+deceased friend, who had been in the trade. I was acquainted also with
+several officers who had been in the West Indies, and from these I
+gained something. But I still felt myself at a loss for materials, and I
+did not know where to get them; when going by accident into a friend's
+house, I took up a newspaper then lying on his table. One of the
+articles which attracted my notice, was an advertisement of ANTHONY
+BENEZET'S _Historical Account of Guinea_. I soon left my friend and his
+paper, and, to lose no time, hastened to London to buy it. In this
+precious book I found almost all I wanted. I obtained, by means of it, a
+knowledge of, and access to, the great authorities of Adanson, Moore,
+Barbot, Smith, Bosman, and others. It was of great consequence to know
+what these persons had said upon this subject. For, having been
+themselves either long resident in Africa, or very frequently there,
+their knowledge of it could not be questioned. Having been concerned
+also in the trade, it was not likely that they would criminate
+themselves more than they could avoid. Writing too at a time when the
+abolition was not even thought of, they could not have been biassed with
+any view to that event. And, lastly, having been dead many years, they
+could not have been influenced, as living evidences may be supposed to
+have been, either to conceal or exaggerate, as their own interest might
+lead them, either by being concerned in the continuance of the trade, or
+by supporting the opinions of those of their patrons in power, who were
+on the different sides of this question.
+
+Furnished then in this manner, I began my work. But no person can tell
+the severe trial which the writing of it proved to me. I had expected
+pleasure from the invention of the arguments, from the arrangement of
+them, from the putting of them together, and from the thought in the
+interim that I was engaged in an innocent contest for literary honour.
+But, all my pleasure was damped by the facts which were now continually
+before me. It was but one gloomy subject from morning to night. In the
+day-time I was uneasy. In the night I had little rest. I sometimes never
+closed my eye-lids for grief. It became now not so much a trial for
+academical reputation, as for the production of a work, which might be
+useful to injured Africa. And keeping this idea in my mind ever after
+the perusal of Benezet, I always slept with a candle in my room, that I
+might rise out of my bed and put down such thoughts as might occur to me
+in the night, if I judged them valuable, conceiving that no arguments of
+any moment should be lost in so great a cause. Having at length finished
+this painful task, I sent my Essay to the vice-chancellor, and soon
+afterwards found myself honoured as before with the first prize.
+
+As it is usual to read these Essays publicly in the senate-house soon
+after the prize is adjudged, I was called to Cambridge for this purpose.
+I went and performed my office. On returning however to London, the
+subject of it almost wholly engrossed my thoughts. I became at times
+very seriously affected while upon the road. I stopped my horse
+occasionally, and dismounted and walked. I frequently tried to persuade
+myself in these intervals that the contents of my Essay could not be
+true. The more, however, I reflected upon them, or rather upon the
+authorities on which they were founded, the more I gave them credit.
+Coming in sight of Wades Mill, in Hertfordshire, I sat down disconsolate
+on the turf by the roadside and held my horse. Here a thought came into
+my mind, that if the contents of the Essay were true, it was time some
+person should see these calamities to their end. Agitated in this
+manner, I reached home. This was in the summer of 1785.
+
+In the course of the autumn of the same year I experienced similar
+impressions. I walked frequently into the woods, that I might think on
+the subject in solitude, and find relief to my mind there. But there the
+question still recurred, "Are these things true?" Still the answer
+followed as instantaneously "They are." Still the result accompanied it,
+"Then surely some person should interfere." I then began to envy those
+who had seats in parliament, and who had great riches, and widely
+extended connexions, which would enable them to take up this cause.
+Finding scarcely any one at that time who thought of it, I was turned
+frequently to myself. But here many difficulties arose. It struck me,
+among others, that a young man of only twenty-four years of age could
+not have that solid judgment or knowledge of men, manners, and things,
+which were requisite to qualify him to undertake a task of such
+magnitude and importance;--and with whom was I to unite? I believed
+also, that it looked so much like one of the feigned labours of
+Hercules, that my understanding would be suspected if I proposed it. On
+ruminating, however, on the subject, I found one thing at least
+practicable, and that this also was in my power. I could translate my
+Latin dissertation. I could enlarge it usefully. I could see how the
+public received it, or how far they were likely to favour any serious
+measures, which should have a tendency to produce the abolition of the
+Slave Trade. Upon this then I determined; and in the middle of the month
+of November 1785, I began my work.
+
+By the middle of January, I had finished half of it, though I had made
+considerable additions. I now thought of engaging with some bookseller
+to print it when finished. For this purpose I called upon Mr. Cadell, in
+the Strand, and consulted him about it. He said that as the original
+essay had been honoured by the University of Cambridge with the first
+prize, this circumstance would insure it a respectable circulation among
+persons of taste. I own I was not much pleased with his opinion. I
+wished the essay to find its way among useful people, and among such as
+would act and think with me. Accordingly I left Mr. Cadell, after having
+thanked him for his civility, and determined, as I thought I had time
+sufficient before dinner, to call upon a friend in the city. In going
+past the Royal Exchange, Mr. Joseph Hancock, one of the religious
+society of the Quakers, and with whose family my own had been long
+united in friendship, suddenly met me. He first accosted me by saying
+that I was the person whom he was wishing to see. He then asked me why I
+had not published my prize essay. I asked him in return what had made
+him think of that subject in particular. He replied that his own society
+had long taken it up as a religious body, and individuals among them
+were wishing to find me out. I asked him who. He answered, James
+Phillips, a bookseller, in Georgeyard, Lombard-street, and William
+Dillwyn, of Walthamstow, and others. Having but little time to spare, I
+desired him to introduce me to one of them. In a few minutes he took me
+to James Phillips, who was then the only one of them in town; by whose
+conversation I was so much interested and encouraged, that without any
+further hesitation I offered him the publication of my work. This
+accidental introduction of me to James Phillips was, I found afterwards,
+a most happy circumstance for the promotion of the cause which I had
+then so deeply at heart, as it led me to the knowledge of several of
+those, who became afterwards material coadjutors in it. It was also of
+great importance to me with respect to the work itself: for he possessed
+an acute penetration, a solid judgment, and a literary knowledge, which
+he proved by the many alterations and additions he proposed; and which I
+believe I uniformly adopted, after mature consideration, from a sense of
+their real value. It was advantageous to me also, inasmuch as it led me
+to his friendship, which was never interrupted but by his death.
+
+On my second visit to James Phillips, at which time I brought him about
+half my manuscript for the press, I desired him to introduce me to
+William Dillwyn, as he also had mentioned him to me on my first visit,
+and as I had not seen Mr. Hancock since. Matters were accordingly
+arranged, and a day appointed before I left him. On this day I had my
+first interview with my new friend. Two or three others of his own
+religious society were present, but who they were, I do not now
+recollect. There seemed to be a great desire among them to know the
+motive, by which I had been actuated in contending for the prize. I told
+them frankly that I had no motive but that which, other young men in the
+University had on such occasions; namely, the wish of being
+distinguished, or of obtaining literary honour; but that I had felt so
+deeply on the subject of it, that I had lately interested myself in it
+from a motive of duty. My conduct seemed to be highly approved by those
+present, and much conversation ensued, but it was of a general nature.
+
+As William Dillwyn wished very much to see me at his house at
+Walthamstow, I appointed the 13th of March to spend the day with them
+there. We talked for the most part, during my stay, on the subject of my
+essay. I soon discovered the treasure I had met with in his local
+knowledge, both of the Slave Trade and of slavery, as they existed in
+the United States; and I gained from him several facts, which, with his
+permission, I afterwards inserted in my work. But how surprised was I to
+hear, in the course of our conversation, of the labours of Granville
+Sharp, of the writings of Ramsay, and of the controversy in which the
+latter was engaged, of all which I had hitherto known nothing! How
+surprised was I to learn that William Dillwyn himself had, two years
+before, associated himself with five others for the purpose of
+enlightening the public mind upon this great subject! How astonished was
+I to find that a society had been formed in America for the same object,
+with some of the principal members of which he was intimately
+acquainted! And how still more astonished at the inference which
+instantly rushed upon my mind, that he was capable of being made the
+great medium of connexion between them all. These thoughts almost
+overpowered me. I believe that after this I talked but little more to my
+friend. My mind was overwhelmed with the thought that I had been
+providentially directed to his house; that the finger of Providence was
+beginning to be discernible; that the day-star of African liberty was
+rising, and that probably I might be permitted to become an humble
+instrument in promoting it.
+
+In the course of attending to my work, as now in the press, James
+Phillips introduced me also to Granville Sharp, with whom I had
+afterwards many interesting interviews from time to time, and whom I
+discovered to be a distant relation by my father's side.
+
+He introduced me also by letter to a correspondence with Mr. Ramsay, who
+in a short time afterwards came to London to see me.
+
+He introduced me also to his cousin, Richard Phillips, of Lincoln's Inn,
+who was at that time, on the point of joining the religious society of
+Quakers. In him I found much sympathy, and a willingness to co-operate
+with me. When dull and disconsolate, he encouraged me. When in spirits,
+he stimulated me further. Him I am now to mention as a new, but soon
+afterwards as an active and indefatigable, coadjutor in the cause. But I
+shall say more concerning him in a future chapter. I shall only now add
+that my work was at length printed; that it was entitled _An Essay on
+the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, particularly the African,
+translated from a Latin Dissertation, which was honoured with the first
+Prize in the University of Cambridge, for the year 1785; with
+Additions_; and that it was ushered into the world in the month of June,
+1786, or in about a year after it had been read in the Senate-house in
+its first form.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+Continuation of the fourth class of forerunners and coadjutors up to
+1787; Bennet Langton; Dr. Baker; Lord and Lady Scarsdale.--Author
+visits Ramsay at Teston.--Lady Middleton and Sir Charles (afterward
+Lord Barham).--Author declares himself at the house of the latter
+ready now to devote himself to the cause; reconsiders this declaration
+or pledge; his reasoning and struggle upon it; persists in it; returns
+to London; and pursues the work as now a business of his life.
+
+
+I had purposed, as I said before, when I determined to publish my essay,
+to wait to see how the world would receive it, or what disposition there
+would be in the public to favour my measures for the abolition of the
+Slave Trade. But the conversation which I had held on the 13th of March
+with William Dillwyn, continued to make such an impression upon me, that
+I thought now there could be no occasion for waiting for such a purpose.
+It seemed now only necessary to go forward. Others I found had already
+begun the work. I had been thrown suddenly among these, as into a new
+world of friends. I believed, also, that a way was opening under
+Providence for support; and I now thought that nothing remained for me
+but to procure as many coadjutors as I could.
+
+I had long had the honour of the friendship of Mr. Bennet Langton, and I
+determined to carry him one of my books, and to interest his feelings in
+it, with a view of procuring his assistance in the cause. Mr. Langton
+was a gentleman of an ancient family and respectable fortune in
+Lincolnshire, but resided then in Queen Square, Westminster. He was
+known as the friend of Dr. Johnson, Jonas Hanway, Edmund Burke, Sir
+Joshua Reynolds, and others. Among his acquaintance, indeed, were most
+of the literary, and eminent professional, and public-spirited men of
+the times. At court, also, he was well known, and had the esteem of his
+majesty (George III.), with whom he frequently conversed. His friends
+were numerous also, in both houses of the legislature. As to himself, he
+was much noted for his learning, but most of all for the great example
+he gave, with respect to the usefulness and integrity of his life.
+
+By introducing my work to the sanction of a friend of such high
+character and extensive connexions, I thought I should be doing great
+things. And so the event proved. For when I went to him after he had
+read it, I found that it had made a deep impression upon his mind. As a
+friend to humanity, he lamented over the miseries of the oppressed
+Africans; and over the crimes of their tyrants, as a friend to morality
+and religion. He cautioned me, however, against being too sanguine in my
+expectations, as so many thousands were interested in continuing the
+trade. Justice, however, which he said weighed with him beyond all
+private or political interest, demanded a public inquiry, and he would
+assist me to the utmost of his power in my attempts towards it. From
+this time he became a zealous and active coadjutor in the cause, and
+continued so to the end of his valuable life.
+
+The next person, to whom I gave my work with a like view, was Dr. Baker,
+a clergyman of the Establishment, and with whom I had been in habits of
+intimacy for some time. Dr. Baker was a learned and pious man. He had
+performed the duties of his profession, from the time of his initiation
+into the church, in an exemplary manner; not only by paying a proper
+attention to the customary services, but by the frequent visitation of
+the sick and the instruction of the poor. This he had done, too, to
+admiration in a particularly extensive parish. At the time I knew him,
+he had May-Fair Chapel, of which an unusual portion of the congregation
+consisted then of persons of rank and fortune. With most of these he had
+a personal acquaintance. This was of great importance to me in the
+promotion of my views.  Having left him my book for a month, I called
+upon him. The result was that which I expected from so good a man. He,
+did not wait for me to ask him for his co-operation, but he offered his
+services in any way which I might think most eligible; feeling it his
+duty, as he expressed it, to become an instrument in exposing such a
+complication of guilt and misery to the world. Dr. Baker became from
+this time an active coadjutor also, and continued so to his death.
+
+The person to whom I sent my work next, was the late Lord Scarsdale,
+whose family I had known for about two years. Both he and his lady read
+it with attention. They informed me, after the perusal of it, that both
+of them were desirous of assisting me in promoting the cause of the poor
+Africans. Lady Scarsdale lamented that she might possibly offend near
+and dear connexions, who had interests in, the West Indies, by so doing;
+but that, conscious of no intention to offend these, and considering the
+duties of religion to be the first to be attended to, she should be
+pleased to become useful in so good a cause. Lord Scarsdale also assured
+me, that, if the subject should ever come before the House of Lords, it
+should have his constant support.
+
+While attempting to make friends in this manner, I received a letter
+from Mr. Ramsay, with an invitation to spend a month at his house at
+Teston, near Maidstone, in Kent. This I accepted, that I might
+communicate to him the progress I had made, that I might gain more
+knowledge from him on the subject, and that I might acquire new strength
+and encouragement to proceed. On hearing my account of my proceedings,
+which I detailed to him on the first evening of our meeting, he seemed
+almost overpowered with joy. He said he had been long of opinion that
+the release of the Africans from the scourges of this cruel trade was
+within the determined views of Providence, and that by turning the
+public attention to their misery, we should be the instruments of
+beginning the good work. He then informed me how long he himself had had
+their cause at heart; that communicating his feelings to Sir Charles
+Middleton (afterwards Lord Barham) and his lady, the latter had urged
+him to undertake a work in their behalf; that her importunities were
+great respecting it; and that he had on this account, and in obedience
+also to his own feelings, as has been before mentioned, begun it; but
+that, foreseeing the censure and abuse which such a subject, treated in
+any possible manner, must bring upon the author, he had laid it aside
+for some time. He had, however, resumed it at the solicitation of Dr.
+Porteus, then Bishop of Chester; after which, in the year 1784, it made
+its appearance in the world.
+
+I was delighted with this account on the first evening of my arrival;
+but more particularly, as I collected from it that I might expect in the
+Bishop of Chester and Sir Charles Middleton two new friends to the
+cause. This expectation was afterwards fully realized, as the reader
+will see in its proper place. But I was still more delighted, when I was
+informed that Sir Charles and Lady Middleton, with Mrs. Bouverie, lived
+at Teston Hall, in a park which was but a few yards from the house in
+which I then was. In the morning I desired an introduction to them,
+which accordingly took place, and I found myself much encouraged and
+supported by this visit.
+
+It is not necessary, nor indeed is there room, to detail my employments
+in this village, or the lonely walks I took there, or the meditations of
+my mind at such seasons. I will therefore come at once to a particular
+occurrence. When at dinner one day with the family at Teston Hall, I was
+much pleased with the turn which the conversation had taken on the
+subject, and in the joy of my heart I exclaimed, that "I was ready to
+devote myself to the cause." This brought great commendation from those
+present; and Sir Charles Middleton added, that if I wanted any
+information in the course of my future inquiries relative to Africa,
+which he could procure me as comptroller of the navy, such as extracts
+from the journals of the ships of war to that continent, or from other
+papers, I should have free access to his office. This offer I received
+with thankfulness, and it operated as a new encouragement to me to
+proceed.
+
+The next morning, when I awoke, one of the first things that struck me
+was, that I had given a pledge to the company the day before that I
+would devote myself to the cause of the oppressed Africans. I became a
+little uneasy at this. I questioned whether I had considered matters
+sufficiently to be able to go so far with propriety. I determined
+therefore to give the subject a full consideration, and accordingly I
+walked to the place of my usual meditations,--the woods.
+
+Having now reached a place of solitude, I began to balance everything on
+both sides of the question. I considered first, that I had not yet
+obtained information sufficient on the subject to qualify me for the
+undertaking of such a work. But I reflected, on the other hand, that Sir
+Charles Middleton had just opened to me a new source of knowledge; that
+I should be backed by the local information of Dillwyn and Ramsay; and
+that surely, by taking pains, I could acquire more.
+
+I then considered that I had not yet a sufficient number of friends to
+support me. This occasioned me to review them. I had now Sir Charles
+Middleton, who was in the House of Commons. I was sure of Dr. Porteus,
+who was in the House of Lords. I could count upon Lord Scarsdale, who
+was a peer also. I had secured Mr. Langton, who had a most extensive
+acquaintance with members of both houses of the legislature. I had also
+secured Dr. Baker, who had similar connexions. I could depend upon
+Granville Sharp, James Phillips, Richard Phillips, Ramsay, Dillwyn, and
+the little committee to which he belonged, as well as the whole society
+of the Quakers. I thought, therefore, upon the whole, that, considering
+the short time I had been at work, I was well off with respect to
+support. I believed, also, that there were still several of my own
+acquaintance whom I could interest in the question, and I did not doubt
+that, by exerting myself diligently, persons, who were then strangers to
+me, would be raised up in time.
+
+I considered next, that it was impossible for a great cause like this to
+be forwarded without large pecuniary funds. I questioned whether some
+thousand pounds would not be necessary, and from whence was such a sum
+to come! In answer to this, I persuaded myself that generous people
+would be found who would unite with me in contributing their mite
+towards the undertaking, and I seemed confident that, as the Quakers had
+taken up the cause as a religious body, they would not be behind-hand in
+supporting it.
+
+I considered lastly, that if I took up the question, I must devote
+myself wholly to it. I was sensible that a little labour now and then
+would be inadequate to the purpose, or that, where the interests of so
+many thousand persons were likely to be affected, constant exertion
+would be necessary. I felt certain that if ever the matter were to be
+taken up, there could be no hope of success, except it should be taken
+up by some one who would make it an object or business of his life. I
+thought too that a man's life might not be more than adequate to the
+accomplishment of the end. But I knew of no one who could devote such a
+portion of time to it. Sir Charles Middleton, though he was so warm and
+zealous, was greatly occupied in the discharge of his office. Mr.
+Langton spent a great portion of his time in the education of his
+children. Dr. Baker had a great deal to do in the performance of his
+parochial duty. The Quakers were almost all of them in trade. I could
+look therefore to no person but myself; and the question was, whether I
+was prepared to make the sacrifice. In favour of the undertaking, I
+urged to myself, that never was any cause, which had been taken up by
+man in any country or in any age, so great and important; that never was
+there one in which so much misery was heard to cry for redress; that
+never was there one in which so much good could be done; never one in
+which the duty of Christian charity could be so extensively exercised;
+never one more worthy of the devotion of a whole life towards it; and
+that, if a man thought properly, he ought to rejoice to have been called
+into existence, if he were only permitted to become an instrument in
+forwarding it in any part of its progress. Against these sentiments, on
+the other hand, I had to urge, that I had been designed for the church;
+that I had already advanced as far as deacon's orders in it; that my
+prospects there on account of my connexions were then brilliant, that,
+by appearing to desert my profession, my family would be dissatisfied,
+if not unhappy. These thoughts pressed upon me, and rendered the
+conflict difficult. But the sacrifice of my prospects staggered me, I
+own, the most. When the other objections, which I have related, occurred
+to me, my enthusiasm instantly, like a flash of lightning, consumed
+them; but this stuck to me, and troubled me. I had ambition. I had a
+thirst after worldly interest and honours, and I could not extinguish it
+at once. I was more than two hours in solitude under this painful
+conflict. At length I yielded, not because I saw any reasonable prospect
+of success in my new undertaking (for all cool-headed and cool-hearted
+men would have pronounced against it), but in obedience, I believe, to a
+higher Power. And I can say, that both on the moment of this resolution,
+and for some time afterwards, I had more sublime and happy feelings than
+at any former period of my life.
+
+Having now made up my mind on the subject, I informed Mr. Ramsay, that
+in a few days I should be leaving Teston, that I might begin my labours,
+according to the pledge I had given him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+Continuation of the fourth Class of forerunners and coadjutors Up to
+1787.--Author resolves upon the distribution of his book.--Mr.
+Sheldon; Sir Herbert Mackworth; Lord Newhaven; Lord Balgonie
+(afterwards Leven); Lord Hawke; Bishop Porteus.--Author visits African
+vessels in the Thames; and various persons, for further
+information.--Visits also Members of Parliament; Sir Richard Hill; Mr.
+Powys (late Lord Lilford); Mr. Wilberforce and others; conduct of the
+latter on this occasion.
+
+
+On my return to London, I called upon William Dillwyn, to inform him of
+the resolution I had made at Teston, and found him at his town lodgings
+in the Poultry. I informed him also, that I had a letter of introduction
+in my pocket from Sir Charles Middleton to Samuel Hoare, with whom I was
+to converse on the subject. The latter gentleman had interested himself
+the year before as one of the committee for the Black poor in London,
+whom Mr. Sharp was sending under the auspices of government to Sierra
+Leone. He was also, as the reader may see by looking back, a member of
+the second class of coadjutors, or of the little committee which had
+branched out of the Quakers in England as before described. William
+Dillwyn said he would go with me and introduce me himself. On our
+arrival in Lombard-street, I saw my new friend, with whom we conversed
+for some time. From thence I proceeded, accompanied by both, to the
+house of James Phillips in George-yard, to whom I was desirous of
+communicating my resolution also. We found him at home, conversing with
+a friend of the same religious society, whose name was Joseph Gurney
+Bevan. I then repeated my resolution before them all. We had much
+friendly and satisfactory conversation together. I received much
+encouragement on every side, and I fixed to meet them again at the place
+where we then were in three days.
+
+On the evening of the same day, I waited upon Granville Sharp to make
+the same communication to him. He received it with great pleasure, and
+he hoped I should have strength to proceed. From thence I went to the
+Baptist-head coffee-house, in Chancery-lane, and having engaged with the
+master of the house that I should always have one private room to myself
+when I wanted it, I took up my abode there, in order to be near my
+friend Richard Phillips of Lincoln's Inn, from whose advice and
+assistance I had formed considerable expectations.
+
+The first matter for our deliberation, after we had thus become
+neighbours, was, what plan I ought to pursue to give effect to the
+resolution I had taken.
+
+After having discussed the matter two or three times at his chambers, it
+seemed to be our opinion, that, as members of the legislature could do
+more to the purpose in this question, than any other persons, it would
+be proper to circulate all the remaining copies of my work among these,
+in order that they might thus obtain information upon the subject.
+Secondly, that it would be proper that I should wait personally upon
+several of these also. And thirdly, that I should be endeavouring in the
+interim to enlarge my own knowledge, that I might thus be enabled to
+answer the various objections which might be advanced on the other side
+of the question, as well as become qualified to be a manager of the
+cause.
+
+On the third day, or at the time appointed, I went with Richard Phillips
+to George-yard, Lombard-street, where I met all my friends as before. I
+communicated to them the opinion we had formed at Lincoln's Inn,
+relative to my future proceedings in the three different branches as now
+detailed. They approved the plan. On desiring a number of my books to be
+sent to me at my new lodgings for the purpose of distribution, Joseph
+Gurney Bevan, who was stated to have been present at the former
+interview, seemed uneasy, and at length asked me if I was going to
+distribute these at my own expense. I replied, I was. He appealed
+immediately to those present whether it ought to be allowed. He asked
+whether, when a young man was giving up his time from morning till
+night, they who applauded his pursuit and seemed desirous of
+co-operating with him, should allow him to make such a sacrifice, or
+whether they should not at least secure him from loss; and he proposed
+directly that the remaining part of the edition should be taken off by
+subscription, and, in order that my feelings might not be hurt from any
+supposed stain arising from the thought of gaining any thing by such a
+proposal, they should be paid for only at the prime cost. I felt myself
+much obliged to him for this tender consideration about me, and
+particularly for the latter part of it, under which alone I accepted the
+offer. Samuel Hoare was charged with the management of the subscription,
+and the books were to be distributed as I had proposed, and in any way
+which I myself might prescribe.
+
+This matter having been determined upon, my first care was that the
+books should be put into proper hands. Accordingly I went round among my
+friends from day to day, wishing to secure this before I attended to any
+of the other objects. In this I was much assisted by my friend Richard
+Phillips. Mr. Langton began the distribution of them. He made a point
+either of writing to or of calling upon those to whom he sent them. Dr.
+Baker took the charge of several for the same purpose; Lord and Lady
+Scarsdale of others; Sir Charles and Lady Middleton of others. Mr.
+Sheldon, at the request of Richard Phillips, introduced me by letter to
+several members of parliament, to whom I wished to deliver them myself.
+Sir Herbert Mackworth, when spoken to by the latter, offered his
+services also. He seemed to be particularly interested in the cause. He
+went about to many of his friends in the House of Commons, and this from
+day to day, to procure their favour towards it. Lord Newhaven was
+applied to, and distributed some. Lord Balgonie took a similar charge.
+The late Lord Hawke, who told me that he had long felt for the
+sufferings of the injured Africans, desired to be permitted to take his
+share of the distribution among members of the House of Lords, and Dr.
+Porteus, now Bishop of London, became another coadjutor in the same
+work.
+
+This distribution of my books having been consigned to proper hands, I
+began to qualify myself, by obtaining further knowledge, for the
+management of this great cause. As I had obtained the principal part of
+it from reading, I thought I ought now to see what could be seen, and to
+know from living persons what could be known on the subject.  With
+respect to the first of these points, the river Thames presented itself
+as at hand. Ships were going occasionally from the port of London to
+Africa, and why could I not get on board them and examine for myself?
+After diligent inquiry, I heard of one which had just arrived. I found
+her to be a little wood-vessel, called the Lively, Captain Williamson,
+or one which traded to Africa in the natural productions of the country,
+such as ivory, bees'-wax, Malaguetta pepper, palm-oil, and dye-woods. I
+obtained specimens of some of these, so that I now became possessed of
+some of those things of which I had only read before. On conversing with
+the mate, he showed me one or two pieces of the cloth made by the
+natives, and from their own cotton. I prevailed upon him to sell me a
+piece of each. Here new feelings arose, and particularly when I
+considered that persons of so much apparent ingenuity, and capable of
+such beautiful work as the Africans, should be made slaves, and reduced
+to a level with the brute creation. My reflections here on the better
+use which might be made of Africa by the substitution of another trade,
+and on the better use which might be made of her inhabitants, served
+greatly to animate and to sustain me amidst the labour of my pursuits.
+
+The next vessel I boarded was the Fly, Captain Colley. Here I found
+myself for the first time on the deck of a slave-vessel. The sight of
+the rooms below and of the gratings above, and of the barricado across
+the deck, and the explanation of the uses of all these, filled me both
+with melancholy and horror. I found soon afterwards a fire of
+indignation kindling within me. I had now scarce patience to talk with
+those on board. I had not the coolness this first time to go leisurely
+over the places that were open to me. I got away quickly. But that which
+I thought I saw horrible in this vessel had the same effect upon me as
+that which I thought I had seen agreeable in the other, namely, to
+animate and to invigorate me in my pursuit.
+
+But I will not trouble the reader with any further account of my
+water-expeditions, while attempting to perfect my knowledge on this
+subject. I was equally assiduous in obtaining intelligence wherever it
+could be had; and being now always on the watch, I was frequently
+falling in with individuals, from whom I gained something. My object was
+to see all who had been in Africa, but more particularly those who had
+never been interested, or who at any rate were not then interested, in
+the trade. I gained accordingly access very early to General Rooke; to
+Lieutenant Dalrymple, of the army; to Captain Fiddes, of the engineers;
+to the reverend Mr. Newton; to Mr. Nisbett, a surgeon in the Minories;
+to Mr. Devaynes, who was then in parliament, and to many others; and I
+made it a rule to put down in writing, after every conversation, what
+had taken place in the course of it. By these means, things began to
+unfold themselves to me more and more, and I found my stock of knowledge
+almost daily on the increase.
+
+While, however, I was forwarding this, I was not inattentive to the
+other object of my pursuit, which was that of waiting upon members
+personally. The first I called upon was Sir Richard Hill. At the first
+interview he espoused the cause. I waited then upon others, and they
+professed themselves friendly; but they seemed to make this profession
+more from the emotion of good hearts, revolting at the bare mention of
+the Slave Trade, than from any knowledge concerning it. One, however,
+whom I visited, Mr. Powys, (the late Lord Lilford,) with whom I had been
+before acquainted in Northamptonshire, seemed to doubt some of the facts
+in my book, from a belief that human nature was not capable of
+proceeding to such a pitch of wickedness. I asked him to name his facts.
+He selected the case of the hundred and thirty-two slaves who were
+thrown alive into the sea to defraud the underwriters. I promised to
+satisfy him fully upon this point, and went immediately to Granville
+Sharp, who lent me his account of the trial, as reported at large from
+the notes of the short-hand writer, whom he had employed on the
+occasion. Mr. Powys read the account. He became, in consequence of it,
+convinced, as, indeed, he could not otherwise be, of the truth of what I
+had asserted, and he declared at the same time that, if this were true,
+there was nothing so horrible related of this trade, which might not
+immediately be believed. Mr. Powys had been always friendly to this
+question, but now he took a part in the distribution of my books.
+
+Among those whom I visited was Mr. Wilberforce. On my first interview
+with him, he stated frankly, that the subject had often employed his
+thoughts, and that it was near his heart. He seemed earnest about it,
+and also very desirous of taking the trouble of inquiring further into
+it. Having read my book, which I had delivered to him, in person, he
+sent, for me. He expressed a wish that I would make him acquainted with
+some of my authorities for the assertions in it, which I did afterwards
+to his satisfaction. He asked me if I could support it by any other
+evidence. I told him I could. I mentioned Mr. Newton, Mr. Nisbett, and
+several others to him. He took the trouble of sending for all these. He
+made memorandums of their conversation, and, sending for me afterwards,
+showed them to me. On learning my intention to devote myself to the
+cause, he paid me many handsome compliments. He then desired me to call
+upon him often, and to acquaint him with my progress from time to time.
+He expressed also his willingness to afford me any assistance in his
+power in the prosecution of my pursuits.
+
+The carrying on of these different objects, together with the writing
+which was connected with them, proved very laborious, and occupied
+almost all my time. I was seldom engaged less than sixteen hours in the
+day. When I left Teston to begin the pursuit as an object of my life, I
+promised my friend Mr. Ramsay a weekly account of my progress. At the
+end of the first week my letter to him contained little more than a
+sheet of paper. At the end of the second it contained three; at the end
+of the third, six; and at the end of the fourth I found it would be so
+voluminous, that I was obliged to decline writing it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Continuation of the fourth class of forerunners and coadjutors up to
+1787.--Author goes on to enlarge his knowledge in the different
+departments of the subject; communicates more frequently with Mr.
+Wilberforce.--Meetings now appointed at the house of the
+latter.--Dinner at Mr. Langton's.--Mr. Wilberforce pledges himself
+there to take up the subject in Parliament; remarkable junction, in
+consequence, of all the four classes of forerunners and coadjutors
+before-mentioned.--Committee formed out of these on the 22nd of May,
+1787, for the abolition of the Slave Trade.
+
+
+The manner in which Mr. Wilberforce had received me, and the pains which
+he had taken, and was still taking, to satisfy himself of the truth of
+those enormities which had been charged upon the Slave Trade, tended
+much to enlarge my hope, that they might become at length the subject of
+a parliamentary inquiry. Richard Phillips, also, to whom I made a report
+at his chambers almost every evening of the proceedings of the day, had
+begun to entertain a similar expectation. Of course we unfolded our
+thoughts to one another; from hence a desire naturally sprung up in each
+of us to inquire whether any alteration in consequence of this new
+prospect should be made in my pursuits. On deliberating upon this point,
+it seemed proper to both of us that the distribution of the books should
+be continued; that I should still proceed in enlarging my own knowledge;
+and that I should still wait upon members of the legislature, but with
+this difference, that I should never lose sight of Mr. Wilberforce, but,
+on the other hand, that I should rather omit visiting some others than
+paying a proper attention to him.
+
+One thing however appeared now to be necessary, which had not yet been
+done. This was to inform our friends in the city, upon whom I had all
+along occasionally called, that we believed the time was approaching
+when it would be desirable that we should unite our labours, if they saw
+no objection to such a measure; for, if the Slave Trade were to become a
+subject of parliamentary inquiry with a view to the annihilation of it,
+no individual could perform the work which would be necessary for such a
+purpose. This work must be a work of many; and who so proper to assist
+in it as they, who had before so honourably laboured in it? In the case
+of such an event large funds also would be wanted, and who so proper to
+procure and manage them as these? A meeting was accordingly called at
+the house of James Phillips, when these our views were laid open. When I
+stated that from the very time of my hopes beginning to rise I had
+always had those present in my eye as one day to be fellow-labourers,
+William Dillwyn replied, that from the time they had first heard of the
+_Prize Essay_, they also had had their eyes upon me, and, from the time
+they had first seen me, had conceived: a desire of making the same use
+of me as I had now expressed a wish of making of them, but that matters
+did not appear ripe at our first interview. Our proposal, however, was
+approved, and an assurance was given, that an union should take place as
+soon as it was judged to be seasonable. It was resolved also, that one
+day in the week[A] should be appointed for a meeting at the house of
+James Phillips, where as many might attend as had leisure, and that I
+should be there to make a report of my progress, by which we might all
+judge of the fitness of the time of calling ourselves an united body.
+Pleased now with the thought that matters were put into such a train, I
+returned to my former objects.
+
+[Footnote A: At these weekly meetings I met occasionally Joseph Woods,
+George Harrison, and John Lloyd, three of the other members, who
+belonged to the committee of the second class of forerunners and
+coadjutors as before described. I had seen all of them before, but I do
+not recollect the time when I first met them.]
+
+It is not necessary to say anything more of the first of these objects,
+which was that of the further distribution of my book, than that it was
+continued, and chiefly by the same hands.
+
+With respect to the enlargement of my knowledge, it was promoted
+likewise. I now gained access to the Custom-House in London, where I
+picked up much valuable information for my purpose.
+
+Having had reason to believe that the Slave Trade was peculiarly fatal
+to those employed in it, I wished much to get copies of many of the
+muster-rolls from the Custom-House at Liverpool for a given time. James
+Phillips wrote to his friend William Rathbone, who was one of his own
+religious society, and who resided there, to procure them. They were
+accordingly sent up. The examination of these, which took place at the
+chambers of Richard Phillips, was long and tedious. We looked over them
+together. We usually met for this purpose at nine in the evening, and we
+seldom parted till one, and sometimes not till three in the morning.
+When our eyes were inflamed by the candle, or tired by fatigue, we used
+to relieve ourselves by walking out within the precincts of Lincoln's
+Inn, when all seemed to be fast asleep, and thus, as it were, in
+solitude and in stillness to converse upon them, as well as upon the
+best means of the further promotion of our cause. These scenes of our
+early friendship and exertions I shall never forget. I often think of
+them both with astonishment and with pleasure. Having recruited
+ourselves in this manner, we used to return to our work. From these
+muster-rolls, I may now observe that we gained the most important
+information: we ascertained, beyond the power of contradiction, that
+more than half of the seamen who went out with the ships in the Slave
+Trade did not return with them, and that of these so many perished, as
+amounted to one-fifth of all employed. As to what became of the
+remainder, the muster-rolls did not inform us; this, therefore, was left
+to us as a subject for our future inquiry.
+
+In endeavouring to enlarge my knowledge, my thoughts were frequently
+turned to the West Indian part of the question, and in this department
+my friend Richard Phillips gained me important intelligence. He put into
+my hands several documents concerning estates in the West Indies, which
+he had mostly from the proprietors themselves, where the slaves by mild
+and prudent usage had so increased in population, as to supersede the
+necessity of the Slave Trade.
+
+By attending to these and to various other parts of the subject, I began
+to see as it were with new eyes; I was enabled to make several necessary
+discriminations, to reconcile things before seemingly contradictory, and
+to answer many objections which had hitherto put on a formidable shape.
+But most of all was I rejoiced at the thought that I should soon be able
+to prove that which I had never doubted, but which had hitherto been
+beyond my power in this case, that Providence, in ordaining laws
+relative to the agency of man, had never made that to be wise which was
+immoral, and that the Slave Trade would be found as impolitic as it was
+inhuman and unjust.
+
+In keeping up my visits to members of parliament, I was particularly
+attentive to Mr. Wilberforce, whom I found daily becoming more
+interested in the fate of Africa. I now made to him a regular report of
+my progress, of the sentiments of those in parliament whom I had
+visited, of the disposition of my friends in the city, of whom he had
+often heard me speak, of my discoveries from the Custom-Houses of London
+and Liverpool, of my documents concerning West India estates, and of
+all, indeed, that had occurred to me worth mentioning. He had himself
+also been making his inquiries, which he communicated to me in return.
+Our intercourse had now become frequent, no one week elapsing without an
+interview: at one of these, I suggested to him the propriety of having
+occasional meetings at his own house, consisting of a few friends in
+parliament, who might converse on the subject: of this he approved. The
+persons present at the first meeting were Mr. Wilberforce, the
+Honourable John Villiers, Mr. Powys, Sir Charles Middleton, Sir Richard
+Hill, Mr. Granville Sharp, Mr. Ramsay, Dr. Gregory, (who had written on
+the subject, as before mentioned,) and myself. At this meeting I read a
+paper, giving an account of the light I had collected in the course of
+my inquiries, with observations as well on the impolicy as on the
+wickedness of the trade. Many questions arose out of the reading of this
+little essay; many answers followed. Objections were started and
+canvassed. In short, this measure was found so useful, that certain
+other evenings as well as mornings were fixed upon for the same purpose.
+
+On reporting my progress to my friends in the city, several of whom now
+assembled once in the week, as I mentioned before to have been agreed
+upon, and particularly on reporting the different meetings which had
+taken place at the house of Mr. Wilberforce on the subject, they were of
+opinion that the time was approaching when we might unite, and that this
+union might prudently commence as soon as ever Mr. Wilberforce would
+give his word that he would take up the question in Parliament. Upon
+this I desired to observe, that though the latter gentleman had pursued
+the subject with much earnestness, he had never yet dropped the least
+hint that he would proceed so far in the matter, but I would take care
+that the question should be put to him, and I would bring them his
+answer.
+
+In consequence of the promise I had now made, I went to Mr. Wilberforce.
+But when I saw him, I seemed unable to inform him of the object of my
+visit. Whether this inability arose from any sudden fear that his answer
+might not be favourable, or from a fear that I might possibly involve
+him in a long and arduous contest upon this subject, or whether it arose
+from an awful sense of the importance of the mission, as it related to
+the happiness of hundreds of thousands then alive, and of millions then
+unborn, I cannot say. But I had a feeling within me for which I could
+not account, and which seemed to hinder me from proceeding; and I
+actually went away without informing him of my errand.
+
+In this situation I began to consider what to do, when I thought I would
+call upon Mr. Langton, tell him what had happened, and ask his advice. I
+found him at home. We consulted together. The result was, that he was to
+invite Mr. Wilberforce and some others to meet me at a dinner at his own
+house in two or three days, when he said he had no doubt of being able
+to procure an answer, by some means or other, to the question which I
+wished to have resolved.
+
+On receiving a card from Mr. Langton, I went to dine with him. I found
+the party consist of Sir Charles Middleton, Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Hawkins
+Browne, Mr. Windham, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Mr. Boswell. The latter
+was then known as the friend of Dr. Johnson, and afterwards as the
+writer of his _Tour to the Hebrides_. After dinner the subject of the
+Slave Trade was purposely introduced. Many questions were put to me, and
+I dilated upon each in my answers, that I might inform and interest
+those present as much as I could. They seemed to be greatly impressed
+with my account of the loss of seamen in the trade, and with the little
+samples of African cloth which I had procured for their inspection. Sir
+Joshua Reynolds gave his unqualified approbation of the abolition of
+this cruel traffic. Mr. Hawkins Browne joined heartily with him in
+sentiment; he spoke with much feeling upon it, and pronounced it to be
+barbarous, and contrary to every principle of morality and religion. Mr.
+Boswell, after saying the planters would urge that the Africans were
+made happier by being carried from their own country to the West Indies,
+observed, "Be it so. But we have no right to make people happy against
+their will." Mr. Windham, when it was suggested that the great
+importance of our West Indian islands, and the grandeur of Liverpool,
+would be brought against those who should propose the abolition of the
+Slave Trade, replied, "We have nothing to do with the policy of the
+measure. Rather let Liverpool and the islands be swallowed up in the
+sea, than this monstrous system of iniquity be carried on.[A]" While
+such conversation was passing, and when all appeared to be interested in
+the cause, Mr. Langton put the question, about the proposal of which I
+had been so diffident, to Mr. Wilberforce, in the shape of a delicate
+compliment. The latter replied, that he had no objection to bring
+forward the measure in parliament when he was better prepared for it,
+and provided no person more proper could be found. Upon this, Mr.
+Hawkins Browne and Mr. Windham both said they would support him there.
+Before I left the company, I took Mr. Wilberforce aside, and asked him
+if I might mention this his resolution to those of my friends in the
+city, of whom he had often heard me speak, as desirous of aiding him by
+becoming a committee for the purpose. He replied, I might. I then asked
+Mr. Langton, privately, if he had any objection to belong to a society
+of which there might be a committee for the abolition of the Slave
+Trade. He said he should be pleased to become a member of it. Having
+received these satisfactory answers, I returned home.
+
+[Footnote A: I do not know upon what grounds, after such strong
+expressions, Mr. Boswell, in the next year, and Mr. Windham, after
+having supported the cause for three or four years, became inimical to
+it.]
+
+The next day, having previously taken down the substance of the
+conversation at the dinner, I went to James Phillips, and desired that
+our friends might be called together as soon as they conveniently could
+to hear my report. In the interim I wrote to Dr. Peckard, and waited
+upon Lord Scarsdale, Dr. Baker, and others, to know (supposing a society
+were formed for the abolition of the Slave Trade) if I might say they
+would belong to it. All of them replied in the affirmative, and desired
+me to represent them, if there should be any meeting for this purpose.
+
+At the time appointed I met my friends. I read over the substance of the
+conversation which had taken place at Mr. Langton's. No difficulty
+occurred. All were unanimous for the formation of a committee. On the
+next day we met by agreement for this purpose. It was then resolved
+unanimously, among other things,--That the Slave Trade was both
+impolitic and unjust. It was resolved, also,--That the following persons
+be a committee for procuring such information and evidence, and
+publishing the same, as may tend to the abolition of the Slave Trade,
+and for directing the application of such moneys as have been already,
+and may hereafter be collected for the above purpose:--
+
+All these were present. Granville Sharp, who stands at the head of the
+list, and who, as the father of the cause in England, was called to the
+chair, maybe considered as representing the first class of forerunners
+and coadjutors, as it has been before described. The five next, of whom
+Samuel Hoare was chosen as the treasurer, were they who had been the
+committee of the second class, or of the Quakers in England, with the
+exception of Dr. Knowles, who was then dying, but who, having heard of
+our meeting, sent a message to us to exhort us to proceed. The third
+class, or that of the Quakers in America, may be considered as
+represented by William Dillwyn, by whom they were afterwards joined to
+us in correspondence. The two who stand next, and in which I am
+included, may be considered as representing the fourth, most of the
+members of which we had been the means of raising. Thus, on the 22nd of
+May, 1787, the representatives of all the four classes, of which I have
+been giving a history from the year 1516, met together, and were united
+in that committee, to which I have been all along directing the
+attention of the reader; a committee, which, labouring afterwards with
+Mr. Wilberforce as a parliamentary head, did, under Providence, in the
+space of twenty years, contribute to put an end to a trade, which,
+measuring its magnitude by its crimes and sufferings, was the greatest
+practical evil that ever afflicted the human race.
+
+After the formation of the committee[A], notice was sent to Mr.
+Wilberforce of the event, and a friendship began, which has continued
+uninterruptedly between them, from that to the present day.
+
+[Footnote A: All the members were of the society of the Quakers, except
+Mr. Sharp, Sansom, and myself. Joseph Gurney Bevan was present on the
+day before this meeting. He desired to belong to the society, but to be
+excused from belonging to the committee.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+The preceding history of the different classes of the forerunners and
+coadjutors, to the time of the formation of the committee, collected
+into one view by means of a map.--Explanation of this map, and
+observations upon it.
+
+
+As the preceding history of the different classes of the forerunners and
+coadjutors, to the time of their junction, or to the formation of the
+committee, as just explained, may be thought interesting by many, I have
+endeavoured, by means of the annexed map, so to bring it before the
+reader, that he may comprehend the whole of it at a single view.
+
+The figure beginning at A and reaching down to X represents the first
+class of forerunners and coadjutors up to the year 1787, as consisting
+of so many springs or rivulets, which assisted in making and swelling
+the torrent which swept away the Slave Trade.
+
+The figure from B to C and from C to X represents the second class, or
+that of the Quakers in England, up to the same time. The stream on the
+right-hand represents them as a body, and that on the left the six
+individuals belonging to them, who formed the committee in 1783.
+
+The figure from B to D represents the third class, or that of the
+Quakers in America when joined with others in 1774. The stream passing
+from D through E to X shows how this class was conveyed down, as it
+were, so as to unite with the second. That passing from D to Y shows its
+course in its own country, to its enlargement in 1787. And here I may
+observe, that as the different streams which formed a junction at X,
+were instrumental in producing the abolition of the Slave Trade in
+England, in the month of March, 1807, so those, whose effects are found
+united at Y, contributed to produce the same event in America, in the
+same month of the same year.
+
+The figure from F to X represents the fourth class up to 1787.
+
+[Illustration: First Class of Forerunners and Coadjutors]
+
+[Illustration: Second Class of Forerunners and Coadjutors]
+
+[Illustration: Third Class of Forerunners and Coadjutors]
+
+X represents the junction of all the four classes in the committee
+instituted in London on the twenty-second day of May, 1787.
+
+The parallel lines G, H, I, K, represent different periods of time,
+showing when the forerunners and coadjutors lived. The space between G
+and H includes the space of fifty years, in which we find but few
+labourers in this cause. That between H and I includes the same portion
+of time, in which we find them considerably increased, or nearly
+doubled. That between I and K represents the next thirty-seven years;
+but here we find their increase beyond all expectation, for we find four
+times more labourers in this short term, than in the whole of the
+preceding century.
+
+In looking over the map, as thus explained, a number of thoughts
+suggested themselves, some of which it may not be improper to detail.
+And first, in looking between the first and second parallel, we
+perceive, that Morgan Godwyn, Richard Baxter, and George Fox, the first
+a clergyman of the established church, the second a divine at the head
+of the nonconformists, and the third the founder of the religious
+society of the Quakers, appeared each of them the first in his own
+class, and all of them, about the same time, in behalf of the oppressed
+Africans. We see then this great truth first apparent, that the
+abolition of the Slave Trade took its rise, not from persons who set up
+a cry for liberty, when they were oppressors themselves, nor from
+persons who were led to it by ambition, or a love of reputation among
+men, but where it was most desirable, namely, from the teachers of
+Christianity in those times.
+
+This account of its rise will furnish us with some important lessons.
+And first, it shows us the great value of religion. We see, when moral
+disorders become known, that the virtuous are they who rise up for the
+removal of them. Thus Providence seems to have appointed those who
+devote themselves most to his service, to the honourable office of
+becoming so many agents, under his influence, for the correction of the
+evils of life. And as this account of the rise of the abolition of the
+Slave Trade teaches us the necessity of a due cultivation of religion;
+so it should teach us to have a brotherly affection for those, who,
+though they may differ from us in speculative opinions concerning it, do
+yet show by their conduct that they have a high reward for it. For
+though Godwyn, and Baxter, and Fox, differed as to the articles of their
+faith, we find them impelled by the spirit of Christianity, which is of
+infinitely more importance than a mere agreement in creeds, to the same
+good end.
+
+In looking over the different streams in the map, as they are
+discoverable both in Europe and America, we are impressed with another
+truth on the same subject, which is, that the Christian religion is
+capable of producing the same good fruit in all lands. However men may
+differ on account of climate, or language, or government, or laws, or
+however they may be situated in different quarters of the globe, it will
+produce in them the same virtuous disposition, and make them instruments
+for the promotion of happiness in the world.
+
+In looking between the two first parallels, where we see so few
+labourers, and in contemplating the great increase of these between the
+others, we are taught the consoling lesson, that however small the
+beginning and slow the progress may appear in any good work which we may
+undertake, we need not be discouraged as to the ultimate result of our
+labours; for though our cause may appear stationary, it may only become
+so, in order that it may take a deeper root, and thus be enabled to
+stand better against the storms which may afterwards beat about it.
+
+In taking the same view again, we discover the manner in which light and
+information proceed under a free government in a good cause. An
+individual, for example, begins; he communicates his sentiments to
+others. Thus, while alive, he enlightens; when dead, he leaves his
+works, behind him. Thus, though departed, he yet speaks, and his
+influence is not lost. Of those enlightened by him, some become authors,
+and others actors in their turn. While living, they instruct, like their
+predecessors; when dead, they speak also. Thus a number of dead persons
+are encouraging us in libraries, and a number of living are conversing
+and diffusing zeal among us at the same time. This, however, is not true
+in any free and enlightened country, with respect to the propagation of
+evil. The living find no permanent encouragement, and the dead speak to
+no purpose in such a case.
+
+This account of the manner in which light and information proceed in a
+free country, furnishes us with some valuable knowledge. It shows us,
+first, the great importance of education; for all they who can read may
+become enlightened. They may gain as much from the dead as from the
+living. They may see the sentiments of former ages. Thus they may
+contract, by degrees, habits of virtuous inclination, and become fitted
+to join with others in the removal of any of the evils of life.
+
+It shows us, secondly, how that encouraging maxim may become true, That
+no good effort is ever lost. For if he, who makes the virtuous attempt,
+should be prevented by death from succeeding in it, can he not speak,
+though in the tomb? Will not his works still breathe his sentiments upon
+it? May not the opinions, and the facts, which he has recorded, meet the
+approbation of ten thousand readers, of whom it is probable, in the
+common course of things, that some will branch out of him as authors,
+and others as actors or labourers, in the same cause?
+
+And, lastly, it will show us the difficulty (if any attempt should be
+made) of reversing permanently the late noble act of the legislature for
+the abolition of the Slave Trade. For let us consider how many, both of
+the living and the dead, could be, made to animate us. Let us consider,
+too, that this is the cause of mercy, justice, and religion; that as
+such, it will always afford renewed means of rallying; and that the dead
+will always be heard with interest, and the living with enthusiasm upon
+it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Author devotes this chapter to considerations relative to himself;
+fears that by the frequent introduction of himself to the notice of
+the reader he may incur the charge of ostentation.--Observations on
+such a charge.
+
+
+Having brought my history of the abolition of the Slave Trade up to the
+month of May 1787, I purpose taking the liberty, before I proceed with
+it, to devote this chapter to considerations relative to myself. This,
+indeed, seems to be now necessary; for I have been fearful for some
+pages past, and, indeed, from the time when I began to introduce myself
+to the notice of the reader, as one of the forerunners and coadjutors in
+this great cause, that I might appear to have put myself into a
+situation too prominent, so as even to have incurred the charge of
+ostentation. But if there should be some who, in consequence of what
+they have already read of this history, should think thus unfavourably
+of me, what must their opinion ultimately be, when, unfortunately, I
+must become still more prominent in it!  Nor do I know in what manner I
+shall escape their censure: for if, to avoid egotism, I should write, as
+many have done, in the third person, what would this profit me? The
+delicate situation, therefore, in which I feel myself to be placed,
+makes me desirous of saying a few words to the reader on this subject.
+
+And first, I may observe, that several of my friends urged me from time
+to time, and this long before the abolition of the Slave Trade had been
+effected, to give a history of the rise and progress of the attempt, as
+far as it had been then made; but I uniformly resisted their
+application.
+
+When the question was decided last year, they renewed their request.
+They represented to me, that no person knew the beginning and progress
+of this great work so well as myself; that it was a pity that such
+knowledge should die with me; that such a history would be useful; that
+it would promote good feelings among men; that it would urge them to
+benevolent exertions; that it would supply them with hope in the midst
+of these; that it would teach them many valuable lessons;--these and
+other things were said to me. But, encouraging as they were, I never
+lost sight of the objection; which is the subject of this chapter; nor
+did I ever fail to declare, that though, considering the part I had
+taken in this great cause, I might be qualified better than some others,
+yet it was a task too delicate for me to perform. I always foresaw that
+I could not avoid making myself too prominent an object in such a
+history, and that I should be liable, on that account, to the suspicion
+of writing it for the purpose of sounding my own praise.
+
+With this objection my friends were not satisfied. They answered, that I
+might treat the History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade as a species
+of biography, or as the history of a part of my own life: that people,
+who had much less weighty matters to communicate, wrote their own
+histories; and that no one charged them with vanity for so doing.
+
+I own I was not convinced by this answer. I determined, however, in
+compliance with their wishes, to examine the objection more minutely,
+and to see if I could overcome it more satisfactorily to my own mind.
+With this view, I endeavoured to anticipate the course which such a
+history would take. I saw clearly, in the first place, that there were
+times, for months together, when the committee for the abolition of the
+Slave Trade was labouring without me, and when I myself for an equal
+space of time was labouring in distant parts of the kingdom without
+them. Hence I perceived that, if my own exertions were left out, there
+would be repeated chasms in this history; and, indeed, that it could not
+be completed without the frequent mention of myself. And I was willing
+to hope that this would be so obvious to the good sense of the reader,
+that if he should think me vain-glorious in the early part of it, he
+would afterwards, when he advanced in the perusal of it, acquit me of
+such a charge. This consideration was the first which removed my
+objection on this head. That there can be no ground for any charge of
+ostentation, as far as the origin of this history is concerned, so I
+hope to convince him there, can be none, by showing him in what light I
+have always viewed myself in connexion with the committee, to which I
+have had the honour to belong.
+
+I have uniformly considered our committee for the abolition of the Slave
+Trade; as we usually consider the human body, that is, as made up of a
+head and of various members which had different offices to perform.
+Thus, if one man was an eye, another was an ear, another an arm, and
+another a foot. And here I may say, with great truth, that I believe no
+committee was ever made up of persons, whose varied talents were better
+adapted to the work before them. Viewing then the committee in this
+light, and myself as in connexion with it, I may deduce those truths,
+with which the analogy will furnish me. And first, it will follow, that
+if every member has performed his office faithfully, though one may have
+done something more than another, yet no one of them in particular has
+any reason to boast. With what propriety could the foot, though in the
+execution of its duty it had become weary, say to the finger, "Thou hast
+done less than I;" when the finger could reply with truth, "I have done
+all that has been given me to do?". It will follow, also, that as every
+limb is essentially necessary for the completion of a perfect work; so
+in the case before us, every one was as necessary in his own office, or
+department, as another. For what, for example, could I myself have done
+if I had not derived so much assistance from the committee? What could
+Mr. Wilberforce have done in Parliament, if I, on the other hand, had
+not collected that great body of evidence, to which there was such a
+constant appeal? And what could the committee have done without the
+parliamentary aid of Mr. Wilberforce? And in mentioning this necessity
+of distinct offices and talents for the accomplishment of the great
+work, in which we have been all of us engaged, I feel myself bound by
+the feelings of justice to deliver it as my opinion in this place, (for,
+perhaps, I may have no other opportunity,) that knowing, as I have done,
+so many members of both houses of our legislature, for many of whom I
+have had a sincere respect, there was never yet one, who appeared to me
+to be so properly qualified, in all respects, for the management of the
+great cause of the abolition of the Slave Trade, as he, whose name I
+have just mentioned. His connexions, but more particularly his
+acquaintance with the first minister of state, were of more service in
+the promotion of it, than they, who are but little acquainted with
+political movements, can well appreciate. His habits also of diligent
+and persevering inquiry made him master of all the knowledge that was
+requisite for conducting it. His talents both in and out of parliament
+made him a powerful advocate in its favour. His character, free from the
+usual spots of human imperfection, gave an appropriate lustre to the
+cause, making it look yet more lovely, and enticing others to its
+support. But most of all the motive, on which he undertook it, insured
+its progress. For this did not originate in views of selfishness, or of
+party or of popular applause, but in an awful sense of his duty as a
+Christian. It was this which gave him alacrity and courage in his
+pursuit. It was this which made him continue in his elevated situation
+of a legislator, though it was unfavourable, if not to his health, at
+least to his ease and comfort. It was this which made him incorporate
+this great object among the pursuits of his life, so that it was daily
+in his thoughts. It was this which when year after year of unsuccessful
+exertion returned, occasioned him to be yet fresh and vigorous in
+spirit, and to persevere till the day of triumph.
+
+But to return:--There is yet another consideration, which I shall offer
+to the reader on this subject, and with which I shall conclude it. It is
+this; that no one ought to be accused of vanity until he has been found
+to assume to himself some extraordinary merit. This being admitted, I
+shall now freely disclose the views which I have always been desirous of
+taking of my own conduct on this occasion, in the following words:--
+
+As Robert Barclay, the apologist for the Quakers, when he dedicated his
+work to Charles the Second, intimated to this prince, that any merit
+which the work might have, would not be derived from his patronage of
+it, but from the Author of all spiritual good; so I say to the reader,
+with respect to myself, that I disclaim all praise on account of any
+part I may have taken in the promotion of this great cause, for that I
+am desirious above all things to attribute my best endeavours in it to
+the influence of a superior Power; of Him, I mean, who gave me a heart
+to feel--who gave me courage to begin--and perseverance to proceed--and
+that I am thankful to Him, and this with the deepest feeling of
+gratitude and humility, for having permitted me to become useful, in any
+degree, to my fellow-creatures.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+Author returns to his History.--Committee formed as before-mentioned;
+its proceedings.--Author produces a summary view of the Slave Trade,
+and of the probable consequences of its abolition.--Wrongs of Africa,
+by Mr. Roscoe, generously presented to the committee.--Important
+discussion as to the object of the committee.--Emancipation declared
+to be no part of it.--Committee decides on its public title.--Author
+requested to go to Bristol, Liverpool, and Lancaster, to collect
+further information on the subject of the trade.
+
+
+I return now, after this long digression, to the continuation of my
+history.
+
+It was shown in the latter part of the tenth chapter, that twelve
+individuals, all of whom were then named, met together by means which no
+one could have foreseen, on the 22d of May, 1787; and that, after having
+voted the Slave Trade to be both unjust and impolitic, they formed
+themselves into a committee for procuring such information and evidence,
+and for publishing the same, as might tend to the abolition of it, and
+for directing the application of such money as had been already, and
+might hereafter be collected for that purpose. At this meeting it was
+resolved also, that no less than three members should form a quorum;
+that Samuel Hoare should be the treasurer; that the treasurer should pay
+no money but by order of the committee; and that copies of these
+resolutions should be printed and circulated, in which it should be
+inserted that the subscriptions of all such as were willing to forward
+the plans of the committee should be received by the treasurer or any
+member of it.
+
+On the 24th of May the committee met again to promote the object of its
+institution.
+
+The treasurer reported at this meeting, that the subscriptions already
+received amounted to one hundred and thirty-six pounds.
+
+As I had foreseen long before this time that my _Essay on the Slavery
+and Commerce of the Human Species_ was too large for general
+circulation, and yet that a general circulation of knowledge on this
+subject was absolutely necessary, I determined directly after the
+formation of the committee to write a short pamphlet consisting only of
+eight or ten pages for this purpose. I called it _A Summary View of the
+Slave Trade, and of the probable consequences of its Abolition_. It
+began by exhibiting to the reader the various unjustifiable ways in
+which persons living on the coast of Africa became slaves. It then
+explained the treatment which these experienced on their passage, the
+number dying in the course of it, and the treatment of the survivors in
+the colonies of those nations to which they were carried. It then
+announced the speedy publication of a work on the impolicy of the trade,
+the contents of which, as far as I could then see, I gave generally
+under the following heads:--Part the first, it was said, would show that
+Africa was capable of offering to us a trade in its own natural
+productions as well as in the persons of men; that the trade in the
+persons of men was profitable but to a few; that its value was
+diminished from many commercial considerations; that it was also highly
+destructive to our seamen; and that the branch of it, by which we
+supplied the island of St. Domingo with slaves, was peculiarly impolitic
+on that account. Part the second, it was said, would show that if the
+slaves were kindly treated in our colonies, they would increase; that
+the abolition of the trade would necessarily secure such a treatment to
+them, and that it would produce many other advantages which would be
+then detailed.
+
+This little piece I presented to the committee at this their second
+meeting. It was then duly read and examined; and the result was, that
+after some little correction it was approved, and that two thousand
+copies of it were ordered to be printed, with lists of the subscribers
+and of the committee, and to be sent to various parts of the kingdom.
+
+On June the 7th, the committee met again for the despatch of business,
+when, among other things, they voted their thanks to Dr. Baker, of Lower
+Grosvenor-street, who had been one of my first assistants, for his
+services to the cause.
+
+At this committee John Barton, one of the members of it, stated that he
+was commissioned by the author of a poem, entitled _The Wrongs of
+Africa_, to offer the profits which might arise from the sale of that
+work, to the committee, for the purpose of enabling them to pursue the
+object of their institution. This circumstance was not only agreeable,
+inasmuch as it showed us that there were others who felt with us for the
+injured Africans, and who were willing to aid us in our designs, but it
+was rendered still more so when we were given to understand that the
+poem was written by Mr. Roscoe, of Liverpool, and the preface to it by
+the late Dr. Currie, who then lived in the same place. To find friends
+to our cause rising up from a quarter where we expected scarcely
+anything but opposition, was very consolatory and encouraging. As this
+poem was well written, but cannot now be had, I shall give the
+introductory part of it, which is particularly beautiful, to the perusal
+of the reader. It begins thus:--
+
+
+  Offspring of Love divine, Humanity!
+  To whom, his eldest born, th' Eternal gave
+  Dominion o'er the heart; and taught to touch
+  Its varied stops in sweetest unison;
+  And strike the string that from a kindred breast
+  Responsive vibrates! from the noisy haunts
+  Of mercantile confusion, where thy voice
+  Is heard not; from the meretricious glare
+  Of crowded theatres, where in thy place
+  Sits Sensibility, with wat'ry eye,
+  Dropping o'er fancied woes her useless tear;
+  Come thou, and weep with me substantial ills;
+  And execrate the wrongs that Afric's sons,
+  Torn from their natal shore, and doom'd to bear
+  The yoke of servitude in foreign climes,
+  Sustain. Nor vainly let our sorrows flow,
+  Nor let the strong emotion rise in vain;
+  But may the land contagion widely spread,
+  Till in its flame the unrelenting heart
+  Of avarice melt in softest sympathy--
+  And one bright blaze of universal love
+  In grateful incense rises up to Heaven!
+
+  Form'd with the same capacity of pain,
+  The same desire of pleasure and of ease,
+  Why feels not man for man! When nature shrinks
+  From the slight puncture of an insect's sting,
+  Faints, if not screen'd from sultry suns, und pines
+  Beneath the hardship of an hour's delay
+  Of needful nutriment;--when liberty
+  Is priz'd so dearly, that the slightest breath
+  That ruffles but her mantle, can awake
+  To arms unwarlike nations, and can rouse
+  Confed'rate states to vindicate her claims:--
+  How shall the suff'rer man his fellow doom
+  To ills he mourns and spurns at; tear with stripes
+  His quiv'ring flesh; with hunger and with thirst
+  Waste his emaciate frame; in ceaseless toils
+  Exhaust his vital powers; and bind his limbs
+  In galling chains? Shall he, whose fragile form
+  Demands continual blessings to support
+  Its complicated texture, air, and food,
+  Raiment, alternate rest, and kindly skies,
+  And healthful seasons, dare with impious voice
+  To ask those mercies, whilst his selfish aim
+  Arrests the general freedom of their course;
+  And, gratified beyond his utmost wish,
+  Debars another from the bounteous store?
+
+
+In this manner was the subject of this beautiful poem introduced to the
+notice of the public. But I have no room for any further extracts, nor
+time to make any further comment upon it. I can only add, that the
+committee were duly sensible as well of its merits, as of the virtuous
+and generous disposition of the author, and that they requested John
+Barton to thank him in an appropriate manner for his offer, which he was
+to say they accepted gratefully.
+
+At this sitting, at which ten members were present out of the twelve, a
+discussion unexpectedly arose on a most important subject. The
+committee, finding that their meetings began to be approved by many, and
+that the cause under their care was likely to spread, and foreseeing,
+also, the necessity there would soon be of making themselves known as a
+public body throughout the kingdom, thought it right that they should
+assume some title, which should be a permanent one, and which should be
+expressive of their future views. This gave occasion to them to
+reconsider the object for which they had associated, and to fix and
+define it in such a manner that there should be no misunderstanding
+about it in the public mind. In looking into the subject, it appeared to
+them that there were two evils quite distinct from each other, which it
+might become their duty to endeavour to remove. The first was the evil
+of the Slave Trade, in consequence of which many thousand persons were
+every year fraudulently and forcibly taken from their country, their
+relations and friends, and from all that they esteemed valuable in life.
+The second was the evil of slavery itself, in consequence of which the
+same persons were forced into a situation where they were deprived of
+the rights of men, where they were obliged to linger out their days
+subject to excessive labour and cruel punishments, and where their
+children were to inherit the same hard lot. Now the question was, which
+of the two evils the committee should select as that to which they
+should direct their attention with a view of the removal of it; or
+whether, with the same view, it should direct its attention to both of
+them.
+
+It appeared soon to be the sense of the committee, that to aim at the
+removal of both, would be to aim at too much, and that by doing this we
+might lose all.
+
+The question then was, which of the two they were to take as their
+object? Now, in considering this question, it appeared that it did not
+matter where they began, or which of them they took, as far as the end
+to be produced was the thing desired. For first, if the Slave Trade
+should be really abolished, the bad usage of the slaves in the colonies,
+that is, the hard part of their slavery, if not the slavery itself,
+would fall. For the planters and others being unable to procure more
+slaves from the coast of Africa, it would follow directly, whenever this
+great event should take place, that they must treat those better whom
+they might then have. They must render marriage honourable among them.
+They must establish the union of one man with one wife. They must give
+the pregnant women more indulgences. They must pay more attention to the
+rearing of their offspring. They must work and punish the adults with
+less rigour. Now it was to be apprehended that they could not do these
+things, without seeing the political advantages which would arise to
+themselves from so doing; and that, reasoning upon this, they might be
+induced to go on to give them greater indulgences, rights, and
+privileges, in time. But how would every such successive improvement of
+their condition operate, but to bring them nearer to the state of
+freemen? In the same manner it was contended, that the better treatment
+of the slaves in the colonies, or that the emancipation of them there,
+when fit for it, would of itself lay the foundation for the abolition of
+the Slave Trade. For if the slaves were kindly treated, that is, if
+marriage were encouraged among them; if the infants who should be born
+were brought up with care; if the sick were properly attended to; if the
+young and the adult were well fed and properly clothed, and not
+over-worked, and not worn down by the weight of severe punishments, they
+would necessarily increase, and this on an extensive scale. But if the
+planters were thus to get their labourers from the births on their own
+estates, then the Slave Trade would in time be no longer necessary to
+them, and it would die away as an useless and a noxious plant. Thus it
+was of no consequence, which of the two evils the committee were to
+select as the object for their labours; for, as far as the end in view
+only was concerned, that the same end would be produced in either case.
+
+But in looking further into this question, it seemed to make a material
+difference which of the two they selected, as far as they had in view
+the due execution of any laws, which might be made respecting them, and
+their own prospect of success in the undertaking. For, by aiming at the
+abolition of the Slave Trade, they were laying the axe at the very root.
+By doing this, and this only, they would not incur the objection, that
+they were meddling with the property of the planters, and letting loose
+an irritated race of beings, who, in consequence of all the vices and
+infirmities which a state of slavery entails upon those who undergo it,
+were unfit for their freedom. By asking the government of the country to
+do this, and this only, they were asking for that which it had an
+indisputable right to do; namely, to regulate or abolish any of its
+branches of commerce: whereas it was doubtful, whether it could
+interfere with the management of the internal affairs of the colonies,
+or whether this was not wholly the province of the legislatures
+established there. By asking the government, again, to do this, and this
+only, they were asking what it could really enforce. It could station
+its ships of war, and command its custom-houses, so as to carry any act
+of this kind into effect. But it could not insure that an act to be
+observed in the heart of the islands should be enforced[A]. To this it
+was added, that if the committee were to fix upon the annihilation of
+slavery as the object for their labours, the Slave Trade would not fall
+so speedily as it would by a positive law for the abolition; because,
+though the increase from the births might soon supply all the estates
+now in cultivation with labourers, yet new plantations might be opened
+from time to time in different islands, so that no period could be fixed
+upon, when it could be said that it would cease.
+
+[Footnote A: The late correspondence of the governors of our colonies
+with Lord Camden in his official situation, but particularly the
+statements made by Lord Seaforth and General Prevost, have shown the
+wisdom of this remark, and that no dependence was to be had for the
+better usage of the slaves but upon the total abolition of the trade.]
+
+Impressed by these arguments, the committee were clearly of opinion,
+that they should define their object to be the abolition of the Slave
+Trade, and not of the slavery which sprung from it. Hence from this
+time, and in allusion to the month when this discussion took place, they
+styled themselves in their different advertisements, and reports, though
+they were first associated in the month of May, The Committee instituted
+in June, 1787, for effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Thus, at
+the very outset, they took a ground which was for ever tenable. Thus
+they were enabled also to answer the objection, which was afterwards so
+constantly and so industriously circulated against them, that they were
+going to emancipate the slaves. And I have no doubt that this wise
+decision contributed greatly to their success; for I am persuaded that,
+if they had adopted the other object, they could not for years to come,
+if ever, have succeeded in their attempt.
+
+Before the committee broke up, I represented to them the necessity there
+was of obtaining further knowledge on all those individual points which
+might be said to belong to the great subject of the abolition of the
+Slave Trade. In the first place, this knowledge was necessary for me, if
+I were to complete my work on _The Impolicy of this Trade_, which work,
+the _Summary View_, just printed, had announced to the world. It would
+be necessary, also, in case the Slave Trade should become a subject of
+parliamentary inquiry; for this inquiry could not proceed without
+evidence. And if any time was peculiarly fit for the procuring of such
+information or evidence, it was the present. At this time the passions
+of men had not been heated by any public agitation of the question, nor
+had interest felt itself biassed to conceal the truth. But as soon as
+ever it should be publicly understood, that a parliamentary inquiry was
+certain, (which we ourselves believed would be the case, but which
+interested men did not then know,) we should find many of the avenues to
+information closed against us. I proposed, therefore, that some one of
+the committee should undertake a journey to Bristol, Liverpool, and
+Lancaster, where he should reside for a time to collect further light
+upon this subject; and that if others should feel their occupations or
+engagements to be such as would make such a journey unsuitable, I would
+undertake it myself. I begged, therefore, the favour of the different
+members of the committee, to turn the matter over in their minds by the
+next meeting, that we might then talk over and decide upon the propriety
+of the measure.
+
+The committee held its fourth meeting on the 12th of June. Among the
+subjects which were then brought forward, was that of the journey before
+mentioned. The propriety, and indeed, even the necessity, of it was so
+apparent, that I was requested by all present to undertake it, and a
+minute for that purpose was entered upon our records. Of this journey,
+as gradually unfolding light on the subject, and as peculiarly connected
+with the promotion of our object, I shall now give an account; after
+which I shall return to the proceedings of the committee.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Author arrives at Bristol; introduction to Quaker families
+there.--Objects of his inquiry.--Ill usage of seamen on board the ship
+Brothers.--Obtains a knowledge of several articles of African
+produce.--Dr. Caniplin; Dean Tucker; Mr. Henry Sulgar.--Procures an
+authenticated account of the treacherous massacre at Calabar.--Ill
+usage of the seamen of the ship Alfred.--Painful feelings of the
+author on this occasion.
+
+
+Having made preparations for my journey, I took my leave of the
+different individuals of the committee. I called upon Mr. Wilberforce,
+also, with the same design. He was then very ill, and in bed; Sir
+Richard Hill and others were sitting by his bedside. After conversing as
+much as he well could in his weak state, he held out his hand to me and
+wished me success. When I left him I felt much dejected; it appeared to
+me as if it would be in this case, as it is often in that of other
+earthly things, that we scarcely possess what we repute a treasure when
+it is taken from us.
+
+I determined to take this journey on horseback, not only on account of
+the relaxed state in which I found myself, after such close and constant
+application, but because I wished to have all my time to myself upon the
+road, in order the better to reflect upon the proper means of promoting
+this great cause. The first place I resolved to visit was Bristol;
+accordingly I directed my course thither. On turning a corner, within
+about a mile of that city, at about eight in the evening, I came within
+sight of it. The weather was rather hazy, which occasioned it to look of
+unusual dimensions. The bells of some of the churches were then ringing;
+the sound of them did not strike me till I had turned the corner before
+mentioned, when it came upon me at once; it filled me, almost directly,
+with a melancholy for which I could not account. I began now to tremble,
+for the first time, at the arduous task I had undertaken, of attempting
+to subvert one of the branches of the commerce of the great place which
+was then before me. I began to think of the host of people I should have
+to encounter in it; I anticipated much persecution in it also; and I
+questioned whether I should even get out of it alive. But in journeying
+on I became more calm and composed; my spirits began to return. In these
+latter moments I considered my first feelings as useful, inasmuch as
+they impressed upon me the necessity of extraordinary courage, and
+activity, and perseverance, and of watchfulness, also, over my own
+conduct, that I might not throw any stain upon the cause I had
+undertaken. When, therefore, I entered the city, I entered it with an
+undaunted spirit, determining that no labour should make me shrink, nor
+danger, nor even persecution, deter me from my pursuit.
+
+My first introduction was by means of a letter to Harry Gandy, who had
+then become one of the religious society of the Quakers. This
+introduction to him was particularly useful to me; for he had been a
+seafaring man. In his early youth he had been of a roving disposition;
+and, in order to see the world, had been two voyages in the Slave Trade,
+so that he had known the nature and practices of it. This enabled him to
+give me much useful information on the subject; and as he had frequently
+felt, as he grew up, deep affliction of mind for having been concerned
+in it, he was impelled to forward my views as much as possible, under an
+idea that he should be thus making some reparation for the indiscreet
+and profane occupations of his youth.
+
+I was also introduced to the families of James Harford, John Lury,
+Matthew Wright, Philip, Debell Tucket, Thomas Bonville, and John Waring;
+all of whom were of the same religious society. I gained an
+introduction, also, soon afterwards, to George Fisher. These were my
+first and only acquaintance at Bristol for some time; I derived
+assistance in the promotion of my object from all of them; and it is a
+matter of pleasing reflection, that the friendships then formed have
+been kept alive to the present time.
+
+The objects I had marked down as those to be attended to, were--to
+ascertain what were the natural productions of Africa, and, if possible,
+to obtain specimens of them, with the view of forming a cabinet or
+collection--to procure as much information as I could relative to the
+manner of obtaining slaves on continent of Africa, of transporting them
+to the West Indies, and of treating them there--to prevail upon persons,
+having a knowledge of any or all of these circumstances, to come forward
+to be examined as evidences before parliament, if such an examination
+should take place--to make myself still better acquainted with the loss
+of seamen in the Slave Trade--also with the loss of those who were
+employed in the other trades from the same port--to know the nature, and
+quantity, and value of the imports and exports of goods in the former
+case:--there were some other objects which I classed under the head of
+miscellaneous.
+
+In my first movements about this city, I found that people talked very
+openly on the subject of the Slave Trade. They seemed to be well
+acquainted with the various circumstances belonging to it. There were
+facts, in short, in every body's mouth concerning it; and every body
+seemed to execrate it, though no one thought of its abolition. In this
+state of things I perceived that my course was obvious; for I had little
+else to do, in pursuing two or three of my objects, than to trace the
+foundation of those reports which were in circulation.
+
+On the third of July I heard that the ship Brothers[A], then lying in
+King's Road for Africa, could not get her seamen, and that a party which
+had been put on board, becoming terrified by the prospect of their
+situation, had left her on Sunday morning. On inquiring further, I found
+that those who had navigated her on her last voyage, thirty-two of whom
+had died, had been so dreadfully used by the captain, that he could not
+get hands in the present. It was added, that the treatment of seamen was
+a crying evil in this trade, and that consequently few would enter into
+it, so that there was at all times a great difficulty in procuring them,
+though they were ready enough to enter into other trades.
+
+[Footnote A: I abstain from mentioning the names of the captain of this
+or of other vessels, lest the recording of them should give pain to
+relatives who can have had no share in their guilt.]
+
+The relation of these circumstances made me acquainted with two things,
+of which I had not before heard; namely, the aversion of seamen to
+engage, and the bad usage of them when engaged in this cruel trade; into
+both which I determined immediately to inquire.
+
+I conceived that it became me to be very cautious about giving ear too
+readily to reports; and therefore, as I could easily learn the truth of
+one of the assertions which had been made to me, I thought it prudent to
+ascertain this, and to judge, by the discovery I should make concerning
+it, what degree of credit might be due to the rest. Accordingly, by
+means of my late friend, Truman Harford, the eldest son of the
+respectable family of that name, to which I have already mentioned
+myself to have been introduced, I gained access to the muster-roll of
+the ship Brothers. On looking over the names of her last crew, I found
+the melancholy truth confirmed, that thirty-two of them had been placed
+among the dead.
+
+Having ascertained this circumstance, I became eager to inquire into the
+truth of the others, but more particularly of the treatment of one of
+the seamen, which, as it was reported to me, exceeded all belief. His
+name was John Dean; he was a black man, but free. The report was, that
+for a trifling circumstance, for which he was in no-wise to blame, the
+captain had fastened him with his belly to the deck, and that, in this
+situation, he had poured hot pitch upon his back, and made incisions in
+it with hot tongs.
+
+Before however I attempted to learn the truth of this barbarous
+proceeding, I thought I would look into the ship's muster-roll, to see
+if I could find the name of such a man. On examination I found it to be
+the last on the list. John Dean, it appeared, had been one of the
+original crew, having gone on board, from Bristol, on the twenty-second
+day of July, 1785.
+
+On inquiring where Dean was to be found, my informant told me that he
+had lately left Bristol for London. I was shown, however, to the house
+where he had lodged. The name of his landlord was Donovan. On talking
+with him on the subject, he assured me that the report I had heard was
+true; for that while he resided with him he had heard an account of his
+usage from some of his ship-mates, and that he had often looked at his
+scarred and mutilated back.
+
+On inquiring of Donovan if any other person in Bristol could corroborate
+this account, he referred me to a reputable tradesman living, in the
+Market-place. Having been introduced to him, he told me that he had long
+known John Dean to be a sober and industrious man; that he had seen the
+terrible indentures on his back; and that they were said to have been
+made by the captain, in the manner related, during his last voyage.
+
+While I was investigating this matter further, I was introduced to Mr.
+Sydenham Teast, a respectable ship-builder in Bristol, and the owner of
+vessels trading to Africa in the natural productions of that country. I
+mentioned to him by accident what I had heard relative to the treatment
+of John Dean. He said it was true. An attorney[A] in London had then
+taken up his cause, in consequence of which the captain had been
+prevented from sailing till he could find persons who would be
+answerable for the damages which might be awarded against him in a court
+of law. Mr. Teast further said, that, not knowing at that time the
+cruelty of the transaction to its full extent, he himself had been one
+of the securities for the captain at the request of the purser[B] of the
+ship. Finding, however, afterwards, that it was as the public had
+stated, he was sorry that he had ever interfered, in such a barbarous
+case.
+
+[Footnote A: I afterwards found out this attorney. He described the
+transaction to me, as, by report, it had taken place, and informed me
+that he had made the captain of the Brothers pay for his barbarity.]
+
+[Footnote B: The purser of a ship, at Bristol, is the person who manages
+the outfit, as well as the trade, and who is often in part owner of
+her.]
+
+This transaction, which I now believed to be true, had the effect of
+preparing me for crediting whatever I might hear concerning the
+barbarities said to be practised in this trade. It kindled also a fire
+of indignation within me, and produced in me both anxiety and spirit, to
+proceed. But that which excited these feelings the most, was the
+consideration that the purser of this ship, knowing, as he did, of this
+act of cruelty, should have sent out this monster again. This, I own,
+made me think that there was a system of bad usage to be deliberately
+practised upon the seamen in this employment, for some purpose or other
+which I could then neither comprehend nor ascertain.
+
+But while I was in pursuit of this one object, I was not unmindful of
+the others which I had marked out for myself. I had already procured an
+interview, as I have mentioned, with Mr. Sydenham Teast. I had done this
+with a view of learning from him what were the different productions of
+the continent of Africa, as far as he had been able to ascertain from
+the imports by his own vessels. He was very open and communicative. He
+had imported ivory, red-wood, cam-wood, and gum-copal. He purposed to
+import palm-oil. He observed that bees'-wax might be collected, also,
+upon the coast. Of his gum-copal he gave me a specimen. He furnished me,
+also, with two different specimens of unknown woods, which had the
+appearance of being useful. One of his captains, he informed me, had
+been told by the natives, that cotton, pink in the pod, grew in their
+country. He was of opinion, that many valuable productions might be
+found upon this continent.
+
+Mr. Biggs, to whom I gained an introduction also, was in a similar trade
+with Mr. Teast; that is, he had one or two vessels which skimmed, as it
+were, the coast and rivers for what they could get of the produce of
+Africa, without having any concern in the trade for slaves. Mr. Biggs
+gave me a specimen of gum Senegal, of yellow-wood, and of Malaguetta and
+Cayenne pepper. He gave me, also, small pieces of cloth made and dyed by
+the natives, the colours of which they could only have obtained from
+materials in their own country. Mr. Biggs seemed to be assured that, if
+proper persons were sent to Africa on discovery, they would fine a rich
+mine of wealth in the natural productions of it, and in none more
+advantageous to this as a manufacturing nation, than in the many
+beautiful dyes which it might furnish.
+
+From Thomas Bonville I collected two specimens of cloth made by the
+natives; and from others a beautiful piece of tulipwood, a small piece
+of wood similar to mahogany, and a sample of fine rice, all of which had
+been brought from the same continent.
+
+Among the persons whom I found out at Bristol, and from whom I derived
+assistance, were Dr. Camplin and the celebrated Dean Tucker. The former
+was my warm defender; for the West Indian and African merchants, as soon
+as they discovered my errand, began to calumniate me. The dean, though
+in a very advanced age, felt himself much interested in my pursuit. He
+had long moved in the political world himself, and was desirous of
+hearing of what was going forward that was new in it, but particularly
+about so desirable a measure as that of the abolition of the Slave
+Trade[A]. He introduced me to the Custom House at Bristol. He used to
+call upon me at the Merchants' Hall, while I was transcribing the
+muster-rolls of the seamen there. In short, he seemed to be interested
+in all my movements. He became, also, a warm supporter both of me and of
+my cause.
+
+[Footnote A: Dean Tucker, in his _Reflections on the Disputes between
+Great Britain and Ireland_, published in 1785, had passed a severe
+censure on the British planters for the inhuman treatment of their
+slaves.]
+
+Among others who were useful to me in my pursuit, was Mr. Henry Sulgar,
+an amiable minister of the gospel, belonging to the religious society of
+the Moravians in the same city. From him I first procured authentic
+documents relative to the treacherous massacre at Calabar. This cruel
+transaction had been frequently mentioned to me; but as it had taken
+place twenty years before, I could not find one person who had been
+engaged in it, nor could I come, in a satisfactory manner, at the
+various particulars belonging to it. My friend, however, put me in
+possession of copies of the real depositions which had been taken in the
+case of the king against Lippincott and others relative to this event;
+namely, of Captain Floyd, of the city of Bristol, who had been a witness
+to the scene, and of Ephraim Robin John, and of Ancona Robin Robin John,
+two African chiefs, who had been sufferers by it. These depositions had
+been taken before Jacob Kirby and Thomas Symons, esquires, commissioners
+at Bristol for taking affidavits in the Court of King's Bench. The
+tragedy, of which they gave a circumstantial account, I shall present to
+the reader in as concise a manner as I can.
+
+In the year, 1767, the ships Indian Queen, Duke of York, Nancy, and
+Concord, of Bristol; the Edgar, of Liverpool; and the Canterbury, of
+London; lay in Old Calabar river.
+
+It happened, at this time, that a quarrel subsisted between the
+principal inhabitants of Old Town and those of New Town, Old Calabar,
+which had originated in a jealousy respecting slaves. The captains of
+the vessels now mentioned, joined in sending several letters to the
+inhabitants of Old Town, but particularly to Ephraim Robin John, who was
+at that time a grandee, or principal inhabitant of the place. The tenor
+of these letters was, that they were sorry that any jealousy or quarrel
+should subsist between the two parties; that if the inhabitants of Old
+Town would come on board, they would afford them security and
+protection; adding, at the same time, that their intention in inviting
+them was, that they might become mediators, and thus heal their
+disputes.
+
+The inhabitants of Old Town, happy to find that their differences were
+likely to be accommodated, joyfully accepted the invitation. The three
+brothers of the grandee just mentioned, the eldest of whom was Amboe
+Robin John, first entered their canoe, attended by twenty-seven others,
+and, being followed by nine canoes, directed their course to the Indian
+Queen. They were despatched from thence the next morning to the Edgar,
+and afterwards to the Duke of York, on board of which they went, leaving
+their canoe and attendants by the side of the same vessel. In the mean
+time, the people on board the other canoes were either distributed on
+board, or lying close to, the other ships.
+
+This being the situation of the three brothers, and of the principal
+inhabitants of the place, the treachery now began to appear. The crew of
+the Duke of York, aided by the captain and mates, and armed with pistols
+and cutlasses, rushed into the cabin, with an intent to seize the
+persons of their three innocent and unsuspicious guests. The unhappy
+men, alarmed at this violation of the rights of hospitality, and struck
+with astonishment at the behaviour of their supposed friends, attempted
+to escape through the cabin windows; but, being wounded, were obliged to
+desist, and to submit to be put in irons.
+
+In the same moment in which this atrocious attempt had been made, an
+order had been given to fire upon the canoe, which was then lying by the
+side of the Duke of York. The canoe soon filled and sunk, and the
+wretched attendants were either seized, killed, or drowned. Most of the
+other ships followed the example. Great numbers were additionally killed
+and drowned on the occasion, and others were swimming to the shore.
+
+At this juncture, the inhabitants of New Town, who had concealed
+themselves in the bushes by the water-side, and between whom and the
+commanders of the vessels the plan had been previously concerted, came
+out from their hiding-places, and, embarking in their canoes, made for
+such as were swimming from the fire of the ships. The ships' boats,
+also, were manned, and joined in the pursuit. They butchered the
+greatest part of those whom they caught. Many dead bodies were soon seen
+upon the sands, and others were floating upon the water; and including
+those who were seized and carried off, and those who were drowned and
+killed, either by the firing of the ships or by the people of New Town,
+three hundred were lost to the inhabitants of Old Town on that day.
+
+The carnage which I have been now describing was scarcely over, when a
+canoe, full of the principal people of New Town, who had been the
+promoters of the scheme, dropped along-side of the Duke of York. They
+demanded the person of Amboe Robin John, the brother of the grandee of
+Old Town, and the eldest of the three on board. The unfortunate man put
+the palms of his hands together, and beseeched the commander of the
+vessel that he would not violate the rights of hospitality, by giving up
+an unoffending stranger to his enemies. But no entreaties could avail.
+The commander received from the New Town people a slave of the name of
+Econg in his stead, and then forced him into the canoe, where his head
+was immediately struck off in the sight of the crew, and of his
+afflicted and disconsolate brothers. As for them, they escaped his fate;
+but they were carried off with their attendants to the West Indies, and
+sold for slaves.
+
+The knowledge of this tragical event now fully confirmed me in the
+sentiment, that the hearts of those who were concerned in this traffic
+became unusually hardened, and that I might readily believe any
+atrocities, however great, which might be related of them. It made also
+my blood boil, as it were, within me: it gave anew spring to my
+exertions; and I rejoiced, sorrowful as I otherwise was, that I had
+visited Bristol, if it had been only to gain an accurate statement of
+this one fact.
+
+In pursuing my objects, I found that reports were current, that the crew
+of the Alfred slave-vessel, which had just returned, had been
+barbarously used, but particularly a young man of the name of Thomas,
+who had served as the surgeon's mate on board her. The report was, that
+he had been repeatedly knocked down by the captain; that he had become
+in consequence of his ill usage so weary of his life, that he had three
+times jumped over board to destroy it; that on being taken up the last
+time he had been chained to the deck of the ship, in which situation he
+had remained night and day for some time; that in consequence of this
+his health had been greatly impaired; and that it was supposed he could
+not long survive this treatment.
+
+It was with great difficulty, notwithstanding all my inquiries, that I
+could trace this person. I discovered him, however, at last. He was
+confined to his bed when I saw him, and appeared to me to be delirious.
+I could collect nothing from himself relative to the particulars of his
+treatment. In his intervals of sense, he exclaimed against the cruelty
+both of the captain and of the chief mate, and pointing to his legs,
+thighs, and body, which were all wrapped up in flannel, he endeavoured
+to convince me how much he had suffered there. At one time he said he
+forgave them. At another, he asked if I came to befriend him. At
+another, he looked wildly, and asked if I meant to take the captain's
+part, and to kill him.
+
+I was greatly affected by the situation of this poor man, whose image
+haunted me both night and day, and I was meditating how most effectually
+to assist him, when I heard that he was dead.
+
+I was very desirous of tracing something further on this subject, when
+Walter Chandler, of the society of the Quakers, who had been daily
+looking out for intelligence for me, brought a young man to me of the
+name of Dixon. He had been one of the crew of the same ship. He told me
+the particulars of the treatment of Thomas, with very little variation
+from those contained in the public report. After cross-examining him in
+the best manner I was able, I could find no inconsistency in his
+account.
+
+I asked Dixon how the captain came to treat the surgeon's mate in
+particular so ill. He said he had treated them all much alike. A person
+of the name of Bulpin, he believed, was the only one who had escaped bad
+usage in the ship. With respect to himself, he had been cruelly used so
+early as in the outward bound passage, which had occasioned him to jump
+overboard. When taken up, he was put into irons, and kept in these for a
+considerable time. He was afterwards ill used at different times, and
+even so late as within three or four days of his return to port. For
+just before the Alfred made the island of Lundy, he was struck by the
+captain, who cut his under lip into two. He said that it had bled so
+much, that the captain expressed himself as if much alarmed; and having
+the expectation of arriving soon at Bristol, he had promised to make him
+amends, if he would hold his peace. This he said he had hitherto done,
+but he had received no recompense. In confirmation of his own usage, he
+desired me to examine his lip, which I had no occasion to do, having
+already perceived it, for the wound was apparently almost fresh.
+
+I asked Dixon if there was any person in Bristol beside himself, who
+could confirm to me this his own treatment, as well as that of the other
+unfortunate man who was now dead. He referred me to a seaman of the name
+of Matthew Pyke. This person, when brought to me, not only related
+readily the particulars of the usage in both cases, as I have now stated
+them, but that which he received himself. He said that his own arm had
+been broken by the chief mate in Black River, Jamaica, and that he had
+also by the captain's orders, though contrary to the practice in
+merchant-vessels, been severely flogged. His arm appeared to be then in
+pain; and I had a proof of the punishment by an inspection of his back.
+
+I asked Matthew Pyke if the crew in general had been treated in a cruel
+manner. He replied they had, except James Bulpin. I then asked where
+James Bulpin was to be found. He told me where he had lodged; but feared
+he had gone home to his friends in Somersetshire, I think, somewhere in
+the neighbourhood of Bridgewater.
+
+I thought it prudent to institute an inquiry into the characters of
+Thomas, Dixon, and Matthew Pyke, before I went further. The two former I
+found were strangers in Bristol, and I could collect nothing about them.
+The latter was a native of the place, had served his time as a seaman
+from the port, and was reputed of fair character.
+
+My next business was to see James Bulpin. I found him just setting off
+for the country. He stopped, however, to converse with me. He was a
+young man of very respectable appearance, and of mild manners. His
+appearance, indeed, gave me reason to hope that I might depend upon his
+statements; but I was most of all influenced by the consideration that,
+never having been ill-used himself, he could have no inducement to go
+beyond the bounds of truth on this occasion. He gave me a melancholy
+confirmation of all the three cases. He told me, also, that one Joseph
+Cunningham had been a severe sufferer, and that there was reason to fear
+that Charles Horseler, another of the crew, had been so severely beaten
+over the breast with a knotted end of a rope, (which end was of the size
+of a large ball, and had been made on purpose,) that he died of it. To
+this he added, that it was now a notorious fact, that the captain of the
+Alfred, when mate of a slave-ship, had been tried at Barbados for the
+murder of one of the crew with whom he had sailed, but that he escaped
+by bribing the principal witness to disappear[A].
+
+[Footnote A: Mr. Sampson, who was surgeon's mate of the ship in which
+the captain had thus served as a mate, confirmed to me afterwards this
+assertion, having often heard him boast in the cabin, "how he had
+tricked the law on that occasion."]
+
+The reader will see, the further I went into the history of this voyage,
+the more dismal it became. One miserable account, when examined, only
+brought up another. I saw no end to inquiry. The great question was,
+what was I to do? I thought the best thing would be to get the captain
+apprehended, and make him stand his trial either for the murder of
+Thomas or of Charles Horseler. I communicated with the late Mr. Burges,
+an eminent attorney, and the deputy town-clerk, on this occasion. He had
+shown an attachment to me on account of the cause I had undertaken, and
+had given me privately assistance in it. I say privately; because,
+knowing the sentiments of many of the corporate body at Bristol, under
+whom he acted, he was fearful of coming forward in an open manner. His
+advice to me was, to take notes of the case for my own private
+conviction, but to take no public cognizance of it. He said that seamen,
+as soon as their wages were expended, must be off to sea again. They
+could not generally, as landsmen do, maintain themselves on shore. Hence
+I should be obliged to keep the whole crew at my own expense till the
+day of trial, which might not be for months to come. He doubted not
+that, in the interim, the merchants and others would inveigle many of
+them away by making them boatswains and other inferior officers in some
+of their ships; so that, when the day of trial should come, I should
+find my witnesses dispersed and gone. He observed, moreover, that if any
+of the officers of the ship had any notion of going out again under the
+same owners[A], I should have all these against me. To which he added,
+that if I were to make a point of taking up the cause of those whom I
+found complaining of hard usage in this trade, I must take up that of
+nearly all who sailed in it; for that he only knew of one captain from
+the port in the Slave Trade, who did not deserve long ago to be hanged.
+Hence I should get into a labyrinth of expense, and difficulty, and
+uneasiness of mind, from whence I should not easily find a clew to guide
+me.
+
+[Footnote A: The seamen of the Alfred informed the purser of their ill
+usage, Matthew Pyke not only showed him his arm and his back, but
+acquainted him with the murder of Charles Horseler, stating that he had
+the instrument of his death in his possession. The purser seemed more
+alive to this than to any other circumstance, and wished to get it from
+him. Pyke, however, had given it to me. Now what will the reader think,
+when he is informed that the purser, after all this knowledge of the
+captain's cruelty, sent him out again, and that he was the same person
+who was purser of the Brothers, and who had also sent out the captain of
+that ship a second time, as has been related, notwithstanding his
+barbarities in former voyages!]
+
+This advice, though it was judicious, and founded on a knowledge of law
+proceedings, I found it very difficult to adopt. My own disposition was
+naturally such, that whatever I engaged in I followed with more than
+ordinary warmth. I could not be supposed, therefore, affected and
+interested as I then was, to be cool and tranquil on this occasion. And
+yet what would my worthy friend have said, if in this first instance I
+had opposed him? I had a very severe struggle in my own feelings on this
+account. At length, though reluctantly, I obeyed; but as the passions
+which agitate the human mind, when it is greatly inflamed, must have a
+vent somewhere, or must work off, as it were, or in working together
+must produce some new passion or effect, so I found the rage which had
+been kindling within me subsiding into the most determined resolutions
+of future increased activity and perseverance. I began now to think that
+the day was not long enough for me to labour in. I regretted often the
+approach of night, which suspended my work, and I often welcomed that of
+the morning, which restored me to it. When I felt myself weary, I became
+refreshed by the thought of what I was doing; when disconsolate, I was
+comforted by it. I lived in hope that every day's labour would furnish
+me with that knowledge which would bring this evil nearer to its end;
+and I worked on under these feelings, regarding neither trouble nor
+danger in the pursuit.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Author confers with the inhabitants of Bridgewater relative to a
+petition to parliament in behalf of the abolition; returns to Bristol;
+discovers a scandalous mode of procuring seamen for the Slave Trade,
+and of paying them; makes a comparative view of their loss in this and
+in other trades; procures imports and exports.--Examines the
+construction and admeasurement of slave ships; of the Fly and
+Neptune.--Difficulty of procuring evidence.--Case of Gardiner, of the
+Pilgrim; of Arnold, of the Ruby; some particulars of the latter in his
+former voyages.
+
+
+Having heard by accident that the inhabitants of the town of Bridgewater
+had sent a petition to the House of Commons, in the year 1785, for the
+abolition of the Slave Trade, as has been related in a former part of
+the work, I determined, while my feelings were warm, to go there, and to
+try to find out those who had been concerned in it, and to confer with
+them as the tried friends of the cause. The time seemed to me to be
+approaching when the public voice should be raised against this enormous
+evil. I was sure that it was only necessary for the inhabitants of this
+favoured island to know it to feel a just indignation against it.
+Accordingly I set off. My friend George Fisher, who was before mentioned
+to have been of the religious Society of the Quakers, gave me an
+introduction to the respectable family of Ball, which was of the same
+religious persuasion. I called upon Mr. Sealey, Anstice, Crandon, Chubb,
+and others. I laid open to those whom I saw, the discoveries I had made
+relative to the loss and ill treatment of seamen; at which they seemed
+to be much moved; and it was agreed that if it should be thought a
+proper measure, (of which I would inform them when I had consulted the
+committee,) a second petition should be sent to Parliament from the
+inhabitants, praying for the abolition of the Slave Trade. With this
+view I left them several of my _Summary View_, before mentioned, to
+distribute, that the inhabitants might know more particularly the nature
+of the evil, against which they were going to complain. On my return to
+Bristol, I determined to inquire into the truth of the reports that
+seamen had an aversion to enter, and that they were inveigled, if not
+often forced, into this hateful employment. For this purpose I was
+introduced to a landlord of the name of Thompson, who kept a
+public-house called the Seven Stars. He was a very intelligent man, was
+accustomed to receive sailors when discharged at the end of their
+voyages, and to board them till their vessels went out again, or to find
+them births in others. He avoided, however, all connexion with the Slave
+Trade, declaring that the credit of his house would be ruined if he were
+known to send those, who put themselves under his care, into it.
+
+From him I collected the truth of all that had been stated to me on this
+subject. But I told him I should not be satisfied until I had beheld
+those scenes myself which he had described to me; and I entreated him to
+take me into them, saying that I would reward him for all his time and
+trouble, and that I would never forget him while I lived. To this he
+consented; and as three or four slave-vessels at this time were
+preparing for their voyages, it was time that we should begin our
+rounds. At about twelve at night we generally set out, and were employed
+till two and sometimes three in the morning. He led me from one of these
+public-houses to another which the mates of the slave-vessels used to
+frequent to pick up their hands. These houses were in Marsh-street, and
+most of them were then kept by Irishmen. The scenes witnessed in these
+houses were truly distressing to me; and yet, if I wished to know
+practically what I had purposed, I could not avoid them. Music, dancing,
+rioting, drunkenness, and profane swearing, were kept up from night to
+night. The young mariner, if a stranger to the port, and unacquainted
+with the nature of the Slave Trade, was sure to be picked up. The
+novelty of the voyages, the superiority of the wages in this over any
+other trades, and the privileges of various kinds, were set before him.
+Gulled in this manner, he was frequently enticed to the boat, which was
+waiting to carry him away. If these prospects did not attract him, he
+was plied with liquor till he became intoxicated, when a bargain was
+made over him between the landlord and the mate. After this his senses
+were kept in such a constant state of stupefaction by the liquor, that
+in time the former might do with him what he pleased. Seamen, also, were
+boarded in these houses, who, when the slave-ships were going out, but
+at no other time, were encouraged to spend more than they had money to
+pay for; and to these, when they had thus exceeded, but one alternative
+was given, namely, a slave-vessel or a gaol. These distressing scenes I
+found myself obliged frequently to witness, for I was no less than
+nineteen times occupied in making these hateful rounds; and I can say
+from my own experience, and all the information I could collect from
+Thompson and others, that no such practices were in use to obtain seamen
+for other trades.
+
+The treatment of the seamen employed in the Slave Trade had so deeply
+interested me, and now the manner of procuring them, that I was
+determined to make myself acquainted with their whole history; for I
+found by report that they were not only personally ill-treated, as I
+have already painfully described, but that they were robbed by artifice
+of those wages, which had been held up to them as so superior in this
+service. All persons were obliged to sign articles that, in case they
+should die or be discharged during the voyage, the wages then due to
+them should be paid in the currency where the vessel carried her slaves,
+and that half of the wages due to them on their arrival there should be
+paid in the same manner, and that they were never permitted to read over
+the articles they had signed. By means of this iniquitous practice the
+wages in the Slave Trade, though nominally higher in order to induce
+seamen to engage in it, were actually lower than in other trades. All
+these usages I ascertained in such a manner, that no person could doubt
+the truth of them. I actually obtained possession of articles of
+agreement belonging to these vessels, which had been signed and executed
+in former voyages. I made the merchants themselves, by sending those
+seamen who had claims upon them to ask for their accounts current with
+their respective ships, furnish me with such documents as would have
+been evidence against them in any court of law. On whatever branch of
+the system I turned my eyes, I found it equally barbarous. The trade
+was, in short, one mass of iniquity from the beginning to the end.
+
+I employed myself occasionally in the Merchant's-hall, in making copies
+of the muster-rolls of ships sailing to different parts of the world,
+that I might make a comparative view of the loss of seamen in the Slave
+Trade, with that of those in the other trades from the same port. The
+result of this employment showed me the importance of it: for, when I
+considered how partial the inhabitants of this country were to their
+fellow-citizens, the seamen belonging to it, and in what estimation the
+members of the legislature held them, by enforcing the Navigation Act,
+which they considered to be the bulwark of the nation, and by giving
+bounties to certain trades, that these might become so many nurseries
+for the marine, I thought it of great importance, to be able to prove,
+as I was then capable of doing, that more persons would be found dead in
+three slave-vessels from Bristol, in a given time, than in all the other
+vessels put together, numerous as they were, belonging to the same port.
+
+I procured also an account of the exports and imports for the year 1786,
+by means of which I was enabled to judge of the comparative value of
+this and the other trades.
+
+In pursuing another object, which was that of going on board the
+slave-ships, and learning their construction and dimensions, I was
+greatly struck, and indeed affected, by the appearance of two little
+sloops, which were fitting out for Africa, the one of only twenty-five
+tons, which was said to be destined to carry seventy and the other of
+only eleven, which was said to be destined to carry thirty slaves. I was
+told also that which was more affecting, namely, that these were not to
+act as tenders on the coast, by going up and down the rivers, and
+receiving three or four slaves at a time, and then carrying them to a
+large ship, which was to take them to the West Indies; but that it was
+actually intended, that they should transport their own slaves
+themselves; that one if not both of them were, on their arrival in the
+West Indies, to be sold as pleasure-vessels, and that the seamen
+belonging to them were to be permitted to come home by what is usually
+called the run.
+
+This account of the destination of these little vessels, though it was
+distressing at first, appeared to me afterwards, on cool reasoning, to
+be incredible. I thought that my informants wished to impose upon me, in
+order that I might make statements which would carry their own
+refutation with them, and that thus I might injure the great cause which
+I had undertaken. And I was much inclined to be of this opinion, when I
+looked again at the least of the two; for any person, who was tall,
+standing upon dry ground by the side of her, might have overlooked every
+thing upon her deck. I knew also that she had been built as a
+pleasure-boat for the accommodation of only six persons upon the Severn.
+I determined, therefore, to suspend my belief till I could take the
+admeasurement of each vessel. This I did; but lest, in the agitation of
+my mind on this occasion, I should have made any mistake, I desired my
+friend George Fisher to apply to the builder for his admeasurement also.
+With this he kindly complied. When he obtained it he brought it me. This
+account, which nearly corresponded with my own, was as follows:--In the
+vessel of twenty-five tons, the length of the upper part of the hold, or
+roof of the room, where the seventy slaves were to be stowed, was but
+little better than ten yards, or thirty-one feet. The greatest breadth
+of the bottom, or floor, was ten feet four inches; and the least five.
+Hence, a grown person must sit down all the voyage, and contract his
+limbs within the narrow limits of three square feet. In the vessel of
+eleven tons, the length of the room for the thirty slaves was twenty-two
+feet. The greatest breadth of the floor was eight, and the least four.
+The whole height from the keel to the beam was but five feet eight
+inches, three feet of which were occupied by ballast, cargo, and
+provisions, so that two feet eight inches remained only as the height
+between the decks. Hence, each slave would have only four square feet to
+sit in, and, when in this posture, his head, if he were a full-grown
+person, would touch the ceiling, or upper deck.
+
+Having now received this admeasurement from the builder, which was
+rather more favourable than my own, I looked upon the destination of
+these little vessels as yet more incredible than before. Still the
+different persons, whom I occasionally saw on board them, persisted in
+it that they were going to Africa for slaves, and also for the numbers
+mentioned, which they were afterwards to carry to the West Indies
+themselves. I desired, however, my friends, George Fisher, Truman
+Harford, Harry Gandy, Walter Chandler, and others, each to make a
+separate inquiry for me on this subject; and they all agreed that,
+improbable as the account both of their destination, and of the number
+they were to take, might appear, they had found it to be too true. I had
+soon afterwards the sorrow to learn from official documents from the
+Custom-house, that these little vessels actually cleared out for Africa,
+and that now nothing could be related so barbarous of this traffic,
+which might not instantly be believed.
+
+In pursuing my different objects there was one, which, to my great
+vexation, I found it extremely difficult to attain. This was the
+procuring of any assurance from those who had been personally acquainted
+with the horrors of this trade, that they would appear, if called upon,
+as evidence against it. My friend Harry Gandy, to whom I had been first
+introduced, had been two voyages, as I before mentioned; and he was
+willing, though at an advanced age, to go to London, to state publicly
+all he knew concerning them. But with respect to the many others in
+Bristol, who had been to the coast of Africa, I had not yet found one
+who would come forward for this purpose. There were several old Slave
+Captains living there, who had a great knowledge of the subject. I
+thought it not unreasonable that I might gain one or two good evidences
+out of these, as they had probably long ago left the concern, and were
+not now interested in the continuance of it; but all my endeavours were
+fruitless. I sent messages to them by different persons. I met them in
+all ways. I stated to them, that if there was nothing objectionable in
+the trade, seeing it laboured under such a stigma, they had an
+opportunity of coming forward and of wiping away the stain. If, on the
+other hand, it was as bad as represented, then they had it in their
+power, by detailing the crimes which attached to it, of making some
+reparation or atonement, for the part they had taken in it. But no
+representations would do. All intercourse was positively forbidden
+between us; and whenever they met me in the street, they shunned me as
+if I had been a mad dog. I could not for some time account, for the
+strange disposition which they thus manifested towards me; but my
+friends helped me to unravel it, for I was assured that one or two of
+them, though they went no longer to Africa as captains, were in part
+owners of vessels trading there; and, with respect to all of them, it
+might be generally said, that they had been guilty of such enormities,
+that they would be afraid of coming forward in the way I proposed, lest
+any thing should come out by which they might criminate themselves. I
+was obliged then to give up all hope of getting any evidence from this
+quarter, and I saw but little prospect of getting it from those, who
+were then actually deriving their livelihood from the trade: and yet I
+was determined to persevere; for I thought that some might be found in
+it who were not yet so hardened as to be incapable of being awakened on
+this subject. I thought that others might be found in it who wished to
+leave it upon principle, and that these would unbosom themselves to me:
+and I thought it not improbable that I might fall in with others, who
+had come unexpectedly into a state of independence, and that these might
+be induced, as their livelihood would be no longer affected by giving me
+information, to speak the truth.
+
+I persevered for weeks together under this hope, but could find no one
+of all those, who had been applied to, who would have any thing to say
+to me. At length, Walter Chandler had prevailed upon a young gentleman,
+of the name of Gardiner, who was going out as surgeon of the Pilgrim, to
+meet me. The condition was, that we were to meet at the house of the
+former, but that we were to enter in and go out at different times, that
+is, we were not to be seen together.
+
+Gardiner, on being introduced to me, said at once, that he had often
+wished to see me on the subject of my errand, but that the owner of the
+Pilgrim had pointed me out to him as a person whom he would wish him to
+avoid. He then laid open to me the different methods of obtaining slaves
+in Africa, as he had learned from those on board his own vessel in his
+first, or former, voyage. He unfolded also the manner of their treatment
+in the Middle passage, with the various distressing scenes which had
+occurred in it.  He stated the barbarous usuage of the seamen as he had
+witnessed it, and concluded by saying, that there never was a subject
+which demanded so loudly the interference of the legislature as that of
+the Slave Trade.
+
+When he had finished his narrative, and answered the different questions
+which I had proposed to him concerning it, I asked him, in as delicate a
+manner as I could, how it happened, that, seeing the trade in this
+horrible light, he had consented to follow it again? He told me frankly,
+that he had received a regular medical education, but that his
+relations, being poor, had not been able to set him up in his
+profession. He had saved a little money in his last voyage. In that,
+which he was now to perform, he hoped to save a little more. With the
+profits of both voyages together, he expected he should be able to
+furnish a shop in the line of his profession, when he would wipe his
+hands of this detestable trade.
+
+I then asked him, whether, upon the whole, he thought he had judged
+prudently, or whether the prospect of thus enabling himself to become
+independent, would counterbalance the uneasiness which might arise in
+future? He replied, that he had not so much to fear upon this account.
+The trade, while it continued, must have surgeons. But it made a great
+difference both to the crew and to the slaves, whether these discharged
+their duty towards them in a feeling manner, or not. With respect to
+himself, he was sure that he should pay every attention to the wants of
+each. This thought made his continuance in the trade for one voyage
+longer more reconcilable. But he added, as if not quite satisfied,
+"Cruel necessity!" and he fetched a deep sigh.
+
+We took our leave, and departed, the one a few minutes after the other.
+The conversation of this young man was very interesting. I was much
+impressed both by the nature and the manner of it. I wished to secure
+him, if possible, as an evidence for parliament, and thus save him from
+his approaching voyage: but I knew not what to do. At first, I thought
+it would be easy to raise a subscription to set him up. But then, I was
+aware that this might be considered as bribery, and make his testimony
+worth nothing. I then thought that the committee might detain him as an
+evidence, and pay him, in a reasonable manner, for his sustenance, till
+his testimony should be called for. But I did not know how long it would
+be before his examination might take place. It might be a year or two. I
+foresaw other difficulties also and I was obliged to relinquish what
+otherwise I should have deemed a prize.
+
+On reviewing the conversation which had passed between us after my
+return home, I thought, considering the friendly disposition of Gardiner
+towards us, I had not done all I could for the cause; and, communicating
+my feelings to Walter Chandler, he procured me another interview. At
+this, I asked him, if he would become an evidence if he lived to return.
+He replied, very heartily, that he would. I then asked him, if he would
+keep a journal of facts during his voyage, as it would enable him to
+speak more correctly, in case he should be called upon for his
+testimony. He assured me he would, and that he would make up a little
+book for that purpose. I asked him, lastly, when he meant to sail. He
+said, as soon as the ship could get all her hands. It was their
+intention to sail to-morrow, but that seven men, whom the mates had
+brought drunk out of Marsh-street the evening before, were so terrified
+when they found they were going to Africa, that they had seized the boat
+that morning, and had put themselves on shore. I took my leave of him,
+entreating him to follow his resolutions of kindness both to the sailors
+and the slaves, and wished him a speedy and a safe return.
+
+On going one day by the Exchange, after this interview with Gardiner, I
+overheard a young gentleman say to another, "that it happened on the
+coast, last year, and that he saw it." I wished to know who he was, and
+to get at him if I could. I watched him at a distance for more than half
+an hour, when I saw him leave his companion. I followed him till he
+entered a house. I then considered whether it would be proper, and in
+what manner, to address him when he should come out of it. But I waited
+three hours, and I never saw him. I then concluded that he either lodged
+where I saw him enter, or that he had gone to dine with some friend. I
+therefore took notice of the house, and, showing it afterwards to
+several of my friends, desired them to make him out for me. In a day or
+two I had an interview with him. His name was James Arnold. He had been
+two voyages to the coast of Africa for slaves; one as a surgeon's mate
+in the Alexander, in the year 1785, and the other as surgeon in the
+Little Pearl, in the year 1786, from which he had not then very long
+returned.
+
+I asked him if he was willing to give me any account of these voyages,
+for that I was making an inquiry into the nature of the Slave Trade. He
+replied, he knew that I was. He had been cautioned about falling in with
+me; he had, however, taken no pains to avoid me. It was a bad trade, and
+ought to be exposed.
+
+I went over the same ground as I had gone with Gardiner relative to the
+first of these voyages; or that in the Alexander. It is not necessary to
+detail the particulars. It is impossible, however, not to mention, that
+the treatment of the seamen on board this vessel was worse than I had
+ever before heard of. No less than eleven of them; unable to bear their
+lives; had deserted at Bonny, on the coast of Africa,--which is a most
+unusual thing,--choosing all that could be endured, though in a most
+inhospitable climate, and in the power of the natives, rather than to
+continue in their own ship. Nine others also, in addition to the loss of
+these, had died in the same voyage. As to the rest; he believed, without
+any exception, that they had been badly used.
+
+In examining him with respect to his second voyage, or that in the
+Little Pearl, two circumstances came out with respect to the slaves,
+which I shall relate in few words.
+
+The chief mate used to beat the men-slaves on very trifling occasions.
+About eleven one evening, the ship then lying off the coast, he heard a
+noise in their room. He jumped down among them with the lanthorn in his
+hand. Two of those who had been ill-used by him, forced themselves out
+of their irons, and, seizing him, struck him with the bolt of them, and
+it was with some difficulty that he was extricated from them by the
+crew.
+
+The men-slaves, unable now to punish him, and finding they had created
+an alarm, began to proceed to extremities. They endeavoured to force
+themselves up the gratings, and to pull down a partition which had been
+made for a sick-birth; when they were fired upon and repressed. The next
+morning they were brought up one by one; when it appeared that a boy had
+been killed, who was afterwards thrown into the sea.
+
+The two men, however, who had forced themselves out of irons, did not
+come up with the rest, but found their way into the hold, and armed
+themselves with knives from a cask, which had been opened for trade. One
+of them being called to in the African tongue by a black trader, who was
+then on board, came up, but with a knife in each hand; when one of the
+crew, supposing him yet hostile, shot him in the right side and killed
+him on the spot.
+
+The other remained in the hold for twelve hours. Scalding water mixed
+with fat was poured down upon him, to make him come up. Though his flesh
+was painfully blistered by these means, he kept below. A promise was
+then made to him in the African tongue by the same trader, that no
+injury should be done him if he would come among them. To this at length
+he consented; but on observing, when he was about half way up, that a
+sailor was armed between decks, he flew to him, and clasped him, and
+threw him down. The sailor fired his pistol in the scuffle, but without
+effect; he contrived, however, to fracture his skull with the butt end
+of it, so that the slave died on the third day.
+
+The second circumstance took place after the arrival of the same vessel
+at St. Vincent's. There was a boy-slave on board, who was very ill and
+emaciated. The mate, who, by his cruelty, had been the author of the
+former mischief, did not choose to expose him to sale with the rest,
+lest the small sum he would fetch in that situation should lower the
+average price, and thus bring down[A] the value of the privileges of the
+officers of the ship. This boy was kept on board, and no provisions
+allowed him.
+
+[Footnote A: Officers are said to be allowed the privilege of one or
+more slaves, according to their rank. When the cargo is sold, the sum
+total fetched is put down, and this being divided by the number of
+slaves sold, gives the average price of each. Such officers, then,
+receive this average price for one or more slaves, according to their
+privileges, but never the slaves themselves.]
+
+The mate had suggested the propriety of throwing him overboard, but no
+one would do it. On the ninth day he expired, having never been allowed
+any sustenance during that time.
+
+I asked Mr. Arnold if he was willing to give evidence of these facts in
+both cases. He said he had only one objection, which was, that in two or
+three days he was to go in the Ruby on his third voyage: but on leaving
+me, he said, that he would take an affidavit before the mayor of the
+truth of any of those things which he had related to me, if that would
+do; but, from motives of safety, he should not choose to do this till
+within a few hours before he sailed.
+
+In two or three days after this he sent for me; he said the Ruby would
+leave King-road the next day, and that he was ready to do as he had
+promised. Depositions were accordingly made out from his own words. I
+went with him to the residence of George Daubeny, Esq., who was then
+chief magistrate of the city, and they were sworn to in his presence,
+and witnessed as the law requires.
+
+On taking my leave of him, I asked him how he could go a third time in
+such a barbarous employ; he said he had been distressed. In his voyage
+in the Alexander he had made nothing; for he had been so ill-used, that
+he had solicited his discharge in Grenada, where, being paid in
+currency, he had but little to receive. When he arrived in Bristol from
+that island, he was quite penniless; and finding the Little Pearl going
+out, he was glad to get on board her as her surgeon, which he then did
+entirely for the sake of bread. He said, moreover, that she was but a
+small vessel, and that his savings had been but small in her. This
+occasioned him to apply for the Ruby, his present ship; but if he
+survived this voyage he would never go another. I then put the same
+question to him as to Gardiner, and he promised to keep a journal of
+facts, and to give his evidence, if called upon, on his return.
+
+The reader will see, from this account, the difficulty I had in
+procuring evidence from this port. The owners of vessels employed in the
+trade there forbade all intercourse with me; the old captains, who had
+made their fortunes in it, would not see me; the young, who were making
+them, could not be supposed to espouse my cause, to the detriment of
+their own interest. Of those whose necessities made them go into it for
+a livelihood, I could not get one to come forward, without doing so much
+for him as would have amounted to bribery. Thus, when I got one of these
+into my possession, I was obliged to let him go again. I was, however,
+greatly consoled by the consideration, that I had procured two sentinels
+to be stationed in the enemy's camp, who keeping a journal of different
+facts, would bring me some important intelligence at a future period.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Author goes to Monmouth; confers relative to a petition from that
+place; returns to Bristol; is introduced to Alexander Falconbridge;
+takes one of the mates of the Africa out of that ship; visits disabled
+seamen from the ship Thomas; puts a chief mate into prison for the
+murder of William Lines.--Ill-usage of seamen in various other
+slave-vessels; secures Crutwell's Bath paper in favour of the
+abolition; lays the foundation of a committee at Bristol; and of a
+petition from thence also; takes his leave of that city.
+
+
+By this time I began to feel the effect of my labours upon my
+constitution. It had been my practice to go home in the evening to my
+lodgings, about twelve o'clock, and then to put down the occurrences of
+the day. This usually kept me up till one, and sometimes till nearly two
+in the morning. When I went my rounds in Marsh-street, I seldom got home
+till two, and into bed till three. My clothes, also, were frequently wet
+through with the rains. The cruel accounts I was daily in the habit of
+hearing, both with respect to the slaves, and to the seamen employed in
+this wicked trade, from which, indeed, my mind had no respite, often
+broke my sleep in the night, and occasioned me to awake in an agitated
+state. All these circumstances concurred in affecting my health; I
+looked thin; my countenance became yellow; I had also rheumatic
+feelings. My friends, seeing this, prevailed upon me to give myself two
+or three days' relaxation; and as a gentleman, of whom I had some
+knowledge, was going into Carmarthenshire, I accompanied him as far as
+Monmouth.
+
+After our parting at this place, I became restless and uneasy, and
+longed to get back to my work. I thought, however, my journey ought not
+to be wholly useless to the cause; and hearing that Dr. Davis, a
+clergyman at Monmouth, was a man of considerable weight among the
+inhabitants, I took the liberty of writing him a letter, in which I
+stated who I was and the way in which I had lately employed myself, and
+the great wish I had to be favoured with an interview with him; and I
+did not conceal that it would be very desirable, if the inhabitants of
+the place could have that information on the subject which would warrant
+them in so doing, that they should petition the legislature for the
+abolition of the Slave Trade. Dr. Davis returned me an answer, and
+received me. The questions which he put to me were judicious. He asked
+me, first, whether, if the slaves were emancipated, there would not be
+much confusion in the islands? I told him that the emancipation of them
+was no part of our plan; we solicited nothing but the stopping of all
+future importations of them into the islands. He then asked what the
+planters would do for labourers? I replied, they would find sufficient
+from an increase of the native population, if they were obliged to pay
+attention to the latter means. We discoursed a long time upon this last
+topic. I have not room to give the many other questions he proposed to
+me: no one was ever more judiciously questioned. In my turn, I put him
+into possession of all the discoveries I had made. He acknowledged the
+injustice of the trade; he confessed, also, that my conversation had
+enlightened him as to the impolicy of it; and, taking some of my
+_Summary View_ to distribute, he said he hoped that the inhabitants
+would, after the perusal of them, accede to my request.
+
+On my return to Bristol, my friends had procured for me an interview
+with Mr. Alexander Falconbridge, who had been to the coast of Africa, as
+a surgeon, for four voyages; one in the Tartar, another in the
+Alexander, and two in the Emilia slave-vessels.
+
+On my introduction to him, I asked him if he had any objection to give
+me an account of the cruelties which were said to be connected with the
+Slave Trade; he answered, without any reserve, that he had not; for that
+he had now done with it. Never were any words more welcome to my ears
+than these: "Yes--I have done with the trade;"--and he said, also, that
+he was free to give me information concerning it. Was he not then one of
+the very persons, whom I had so long been seeking, but in vain?
+
+To detail the accounts which he gave me at this and at subsequent
+interviews, relative to the different branches of this trade, would fill
+no ordinary volume. Suffice it to say, in general terms, as far as
+relates to the slaves, that he confirmed the various violent and
+treacherous methods of procuring them in their own country; their
+wretched condition, in consequence of being crowded together in the
+passage; their attempts to rise in defence of their own freedom, and,
+when this was impracticable, to destroy themselves by the refusal of
+sustenance, by jumping overboard into the sea, and in other ways; the
+effect also of their situation upon their minds, by producing insanity
+and various diseases; and the cruel manner of disposing of them in the
+West Indies, and of separating relatives and friends.
+
+With respect to the seamen employed in this trade, he commended Captain
+Frazer for his kind usage to them, under whom he had so long served. The
+handsome way in which he spoke of the latter pleased me much, because I
+was willing to deduce from it his own impartiality, and because I
+thought I might infer from it, also, his regard to truth as to other
+parts of his narrative. Indeed I had been before acquainted with this
+circumstance. Thompson, of the Seven Stars, had informed me that Frazer
+was the only man sailing out of that port for slaves who had not been
+guilty of cruelty to his seamen: and Mr. Burges alluded to it, when he
+gave me advice not to proceed against the captain of the Alfred; for he
+then said, as I mentioned in a former chapter, "that he knew but one
+captain in the trade, who did not deserve long ago to be hanged." Mr.
+Falconbridge, however, stated, that though he had been thus fortunate in
+the Tartar and Emilia, he had been as unfortunate in the Alexander; for
+he believed there were no instances upon naval record, taken altogether,
+of greater barbarity, than of that which had been exercised towards the
+seamen in this voyage. In running over these, it struck me that I had
+heard of the same from some other quarter, or at least that these were
+so like the others, that I was surprised at their coincidence. On taking
+out my notes, I looked for the names of those whom I recollected to have
+been used in this manner; and on desiring Mr. Falconbridge to mention
+the names of those, also, to whom he alluded, they turned out to be the
+same. The mystery, however, was soon cleared up, when I told him from
+whom I had received my intelligence: for Mr. Arnold, the last-mentioned
+person in the last chapter, had been surgeon's mate under Mr.
+Falconbridge in the same vessel.
+
+There was one circumstance of peculiar importance, but quite new to me,
+which I collected from the information which Mr. Falconbridge had given
+me. This was, that many of the seamen, who left the slave-ships in the
+West Indies, were in such a weak, ulcerated, and otherwise diseased
+state, that they perished there. Several, also, of those who came home
+with the vessels were in the same deplorable condition. This was the
+case, Mr. Falconbridge said, with some who returned in the Alexander. It
+was the case, also, with many others; for he had been a pupil for twelve
+months in the Bristol Infirmary, and had had ample means of knowing the
+fact. The greatest number of seamen, at almost all times, who were
+there, were from the slave-vessels. These, too, were usually there on
+account of disease, whereas those from other ships were usually there on
+account of accidents. The health of some of the former was so far
+destroyed, that they were never wholly to be restored. This information
+was of great importance; for it showed that they who were reported dead
+upon the muster-rolls, were not all that were lost to the country by the
+prosecution of this wicked trade. Indeed, it was of so much importance,
+that in all my future interviews with others, which were for the purpose
+of collecting evidence, I never forgot to make it a subject of inquiry.
+
+I can hardly say how precious I considered the facts with which Mr.
+Falconbridge had furnished me from his own experience, relative to the
+different branches of this commerce. They were so precious, that I began
+now to be troubled lest I should lose them. For, though he had thus
+privately unbosomed himself to me, it did not follow that he would come
+forward as a public evidence. I was not a little uneasy on this account.
+I was fearful lest, when I should put this question to him, his future
+plan of life, or some little narrow consideration of future interest,
+would prevent him from giving his testimony, and I delayed asking him
+for many days. During this time, however, I frequently visited him; and
+at length, when I thought I was better acquainted, and probably in some
+little estimation, with him, I ventured to open my wishes on this
+subject. He answered me boldly, and at once, that he had left the trade
+upon principle, and that he would state all he knew concerning it,
+either publicly or privately, and at any time when he should be called
+upon to do it. This answer produced such an effect upon me, after all my
+former disappointments, that I felt it all over my frame. It operated
+like a sudden shock, which often disables the impressed person for a
+time. So the joy I felt rendered me quite useless, as to business, for
+the remainder of the day.
+
+I began to perceive in a little time the advantage of having cultivated
+an acquaintance with Thompson of the Seven Stars. For nothing could now
+pass in Bristol, relative to the seamen employed in this trade, but it
+was soon brought to me. If there was anything amiss, I had so arranged
+matters that I was sure to hear of it. He sent for me one day to inform
+me that several of the seamen, who had been sent out of Marsh Street
+into the Prince, which was then at Kingroad, and on the point of sailing
+to Africa for slaves, had, through fear of ill usage on the voyage,
+taken the boat and put themselves on shore. He informed me, at the same
+time, that the seamen of the Africa, which was lying there also, and
+ready to sail on a like voyage, were not satisfied, for that they had
+been made to sign their articles of agreement without being permitted to
+see them. To this he added, that Mr. Sheriff, one of the mates of the
+latter vessel, was unhappy, also, on this account. Sheriff had been a
+mate in the West India trade, and was a respectable man in his line. He
+had been enticed by the captain of the Africa, under the promise of
+peculiar advantages, to change his voyage. Having a wife and family at
+Bristol, he was willing to make a sacrifice on their account: but when
+he himself was not permitted to read the articles, he began to suspect
+bad work, and that there would be nothing but misery in the approaching
+voyage. Thompson entreated me to extricate him if I could. He was sure,
+he said, if he went to the coast with that man, meaning the captain,
+that he would never return alive.
+
+I was very unwilling to refuse anything to Thompson. I was deeply bound
+to him in gratitude for the many services he had rendered me, but I
+scarcely saw how I could serve him on this occasion. I promised,
+however, to speak to him in an hour's time. I consulted my friend Truman
+Harford in the interim; and the result was, that he and I should proceed
+to Kingroad in a boat, go on board the Africa, and charge the captain in
+person with what he had done, and desire him to discharge Sheriff, as no
+agreement, where fraud or force was used in the signatures, could be
+deemed valid. If we were not able to extricate Sheriff by these means,
+we thought that at least we should know, by inquiring of those whom we
+should see on board, whether the measure of hindering the men from
+seeing their articles on signing them had been adopted. It would be
+useful to ascertain this because such a measure had been long reported
+to be usual in this, but was said to be unknown in any other trade.
+
+Having passed the river's mouth, and rowed towards the sea, we came near
+the Prince first, but pursued our destination to the Africa. Mr. Sheriff
+was the person who received us on board. I did not know him till I asked
+his name. I then told him my errand, with which he seemed to be much
+pleased. On asking him to tell the captain that I wished to speak with
+him, he replied that he was on shore. This put me to great difficulty,
+as I did not know then what to do. I consulted with Truman Harford, and
+it was our opinion that we should inquire of the seamen, but in a very
+quiet manner, by going individually to each, if they had ever demanded
+to see the articles on signing them, and if they had been refused. We
+proposed this question to them. They replied, that the captain had
+refused them in a savage manner, making use of threats and oaths. There
+was not one contradictory voice on this occasion. We then asked Mr.
+Sheriff what we were to do. He entreated us by all means to take him on
+shore. He was sure that under such a man as the captain, and
+particularly after the circumstance of our coming on board should be
+made known to him, he would never come from the coast of Africa alive.
+Upon this, Truman Harford called me aside, and told me the danger of
+taking an officer from the ship; for that, if any accident should happen
+to her, the damage might all fall upon me. I then inquired of Mr.
+Sheriff if there was any officer on board who could manage the ship. He
+pointed one out to me, and I spoke to him in the cabin. This person told
+me I need be under no apprehension about the vessel, but that every one
+would be sorry to lose Mr. Sheriff. Upon this ground, Truman Harford,
+who had felt more for me than for himself, became now easy. We had
+before concluded, that the obtaining any signature by fraud or force
+would render the agreement illegal. We therefore joined in opinion, that
+we might take away the man. His chest was accordingly put into our boat.
+We jumped into it with our rowers, and he followed us, surrounded by the
+seamen, all of whom took an affectionate leave of him, and expressed
+their regret at parting. Soon after this there was a general cry of
+"Will you take me, too?" from the deck; and such a sudden movement
+appeared there, that we were obliged to push off directly from the side,
+fearing that many would jump into our boat and go with us.
+
+After having left the ship, Sheriff corroborated the desertion of the
+seamen from the Prince, as before related to me by Thompson. He spoke
+also of the savage disposition of his late captain, which he had even
+dared to manifest through lying in an English port. I was impressed by
+this account of his rough manners; and the wind having risen before and
+the surf now rolling heavily, I began to think what an escape I might
+have had; how easy it would have been for the savage captain, if he had
+been on board, or for any one at his instigation, to have pushed me over
+the ship's side. This was the first time I had ever considered the peril
+of the undertaking. But we arrived safe; and though on the same evening
+I left my name at the captain's house, as that of the person who had
+taken away his mate, I never heard more about it.
+
+In pursuing my inquiries into the new topic suggested by Mr.
+Falconbridge, I learnt that two or three of the seamen of the ship
+Thomas, which had arrived now nearly a year from the Coast, were in a
+very crippled and deplorable state; I accordingly went to see them. One
+of them had been attacked by a fever, arising from circumstances
+connected with these voyages. The inflammation, which had proceeded from
+it, had reached his eyes; it could not be dispersed; and the consequence
+was, that he was then blind. The second was lame; he had badly ulcerated
+legs, and appeared to be very weak. The third was a mere spectre; I
+think he was the most pitiable object I ever saw. I considered him as
+irrecoverably gone. They all complained to me of their bad usage on
+board the Thomas. They said they had heard, of my being in Bristol, and
+they hoped I would not leave it without inquiring into the murder of
+William Lines.
+
+On inquiring who William Lines was, they informed me that he had been
+one of the crew of the same ship, and that all on board believed that he
+had been killed by the chief mate; but they themselves had not been
+present when the blows were given him; they had not seen him till
+afterwards; but their shipmates had told them of his cruel treatment,
+and they knew that soon afterwards he had died.
+
+In the course of the next day, the mother of Lines, who lived in
+Bristol, came to me and related the case. I told her there was no
+evidence as to the fact, for that I had seen three seamen, who could not
+speak to it from their own knowledge. She said, there were four others
+then in Bristol who could; I desired her to fetch them. When they
+arrived I examined each separately, and cross-examined them in the best
+manner I was able; I could find no variation in their account, and I was
+quite convinced that the murder had taken place. The mother was then
+importunate that I should take up the case. I was too much affected by
+the narration I had heard to refuse her wholly, and yet I did not
+promise that I would; I begged a little time to consider of it. During
+this I thought of consulting my friend Burges, but I feared he would
+throw cold water upon it, as he had done in the case of the captain of
+the Alfred. I remembered well what he had then said to me, and yet I
+felt a strong disposition to proceed, for the trade was still going on.
+Every day, perhaps, some new act of barbarity was taking place; and one
+example, if made, might counteract the evil for a time. I seemed
+therefore to incline to stir in this matter, and thought, if I should
+get into any difficulty about it, it would be better to do it without
+consulting Mr. Burges, than, after having done it, to fly as it were in
+his face. I then sent for the woman, and told her that she might appear
+with the witnesses at the Common Hall, where the magistrates usually sat
+on a certain day.
+
+We all met at the time appointed, and I determined to sit as near to the
+mayor as I could get. The hall was unusually crowded. One or two
+slave-merchants, and two or three others, who were largely concerned in
+the West India trade, were upon the bench; for I had informed the mayor
+the day before of my intention, and he, it appeared, had informed them.
+I shall never forget the savage looks which these people gave me; which
+indeed were so remarkable, as to occasion the eyes of the whole court to
+be turned upon me. They looked as if they were going to speak to me, and
+the people looked as if they expected me to say something in return.
+They then got round the mayor, and began to whisper to him, as I
+supposed, on the business before it should come on. One of them,
+however, said aloud to the former, but fixing his eyes upon me, and
+wishing me to overhear him, "Scandalous reports had lately been spread,
+but sailors were not used worse in Guineamen than in other vessels."
+This brought the people's eyes upon me again; I was very much irritated,
+but I thought it improper to say anything. Another, looking savagely at
+me, said to the mayor, "that he had known Captain Vicars a long time;
+that he was an honourable man[A], and would not allow such usage in his
+ship. There were always vagabonds to hatch up things;" and he made a
+dead point at me, by putting himself into a posture which attracted the
+notice of those present, and by staring me in the face. I could now no
+longer restrain myself, and I said aloud, in as modest manner as I
+could, "You, sir, may know many things which I do not; but this I know,
+that if you do not do your duty, you are amenable to a higher court."
+The mayor upon this looked at me, and directly my friend Mr. Burges, who
+was sitting as the clerk to the magistrates, went to him and whispered
+something in his ear; after which all private conversation between the
+mayor and others ceased, and the hearing was ordered to come on.
+
+[Footnote A: We may well imagine what this person's notion of another
+man's honour was; for he was the purser of the Brothers and of the
+Alfred, who, as before mentioned, sent the captains of those ships out a
+second voyage; after knowing their barbarities in the former; and he was
+also the purser of this very ship Thomas, where the murder had been
+committed. I by no means, however, wish by these observations to detract
+from the character of Captain Vicars, as he had no concern in the cruel
+deed.]
+
+I shall not detain the reader by giving an account of the evidence which
+then transpired. The four witnesses were examined, and the case was so
+far clear; Captain Vicars, however, was sent for. On being questioned,
+he did not deny that there had been bad usage, but said that the young
+man had died of the flux. But this assertion went for nothing when
+balanced against the facts which had come out; and this was so evident,
+that an order was made out for the apprehension of the chief mate. He
+was accordingly taken up. The next day, however, there was a rehearing
+of the case, when he was returned to the gaol, where he was to lie till
+the Lords of the Admiralty should order a sessions to be held for the
+trial of offences committed on the high seas.
+
+This public examination of the case of William Lines, and the way in
+which it ended, produced an extraordinary result; for after this time
+the slave-captains and mates who used to meet me suddenly, used as
+suddenly to start from me, indeed to the other side of the pavement, as
+if I had been a wolf, or tiger, or some dangerous beast of prey. Such of
+them as saw me beforehand used to run up the cross streets or lanes,
+which were nearest to them, to get away. Seamen, too, came from various
+quarters to apply to me for redress. One came to me who had been treated
+ill in the Alexander, when Mr. Falconbridge had been the surgeon of her.
+Three came to me who had been ill-used in the voyage which followed,
+though she had then sailed under a new captain. Two applied to me from
+the Africa, who had been of her crew in the last voyage. Two from the
+Fly. Two from the Wasp. One from the Little Pearl, and three from the
+Pilgrim or Princess, when she was last upon the coast.
+
+The different scenes of barbarity which these represented to me, greatly
+added to the affliction of my mind. My feelings became now almost
+insupportable. I was agonized to think that this trade should last
+another day. I was in a state of agitation from morning till night. I
+determined I would soon leave Bristol. I saw nothing but misery in the
+place. I had collected now, I believed, all the evidence it would
+afford; and to stay in it a day longer than was necessary, would be only
+an interruption for so much time both of my happiness and of my health.
+I determined therefore to do only two or three things, which I thought
+to be proper, and to depart in a few days.
+
+And first I went to Bath, where I endeavoured to secure the respectable
+paper belonging to that city in favour of the abolition of the Slave
+Trade. This I did entirely to my satisfaction, by relating to the worthy
+editor all the discoveries I had made, and by impressing his mind in a
+forcible manner on the subject. And it is highly to the honour of Mr.
+Crutwell, that from that day he never ceased to defend our cause; that
+he never made a charge for insertions of any kind; but that he
+considered all he did upon this occasion in the light of a duty, or as
+his mite given in charity to a poor and oppressed people.
+
+The next attempt was to lay the foundation of a committee in Bristol,
+and of a petition to Parliament from it for the abolition of the Slave
+Trade. I had now made many friends. A gentleman of the name of Paynter
+had felt himself much interested in my labours. Mr. Joseph Harford, a
+man of fortune, of great respectability of character, and of
+considerable influence, had attached himself to the cause. Dr. Fox had
+assisted me in it. Mr. Hughes, a clergyman of the baptist church, was
+anxious and ready to serve it. Dr. Camplin, of the establishment, with
+several of his friends, continued steady. Matthew Wright, James Harford,
+Truman Harford, and all the Quakers to a man, were strenuous, and this
+on the best of principles, in its support. To all these I spoke, and I
+had the pleasure of seeing that my wishes were likely in a short time to
+be gratified in both these cases.
+
+It was now necessary that I should write to the committee in London. I
+had written to them only two letters during my absence; for I had
+devoted myself so much to the great object I had undertaken, that I
+could think of little else. Hence some of my friends among them were
+obliged to write to different persons at Bristol, to inquire if I was
+alive, I gave up a day or two therefore, to this purpose. I informed the
+committee of all my discoveries in the various branches to which my
+attention had been directed, and desired them in return to procure me
+various official documents for the port of London, which I then
+specified. Having done this, I conferred with Mr. Falconbridge, relative
+to being with me at Liverpool. I thought it right to make him no other
+offer than that his expenses should be paid. He acceded to my request on
+these disinterested terms; and I took my departure from Bristol, leaving
+him to follow me in a few days.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Author secures the Gloucester paper, and lays the foundation of a
+petition from that city; does the same at Worcester, and at
+Chester.--Arrives at Liverpool.--Collects specimens of African
+produce; also imports and exports, and muster-rolls, and accounts of
+dock duties, and iron instruments used in the Slave Trade.--His
+introduction to Mr. Norris, and others.--Author and his errand become
+known.--People visit him out of curiosity.--Frequent controversies on
+the subject of the Slave Trade.
+
+
+On my arrival at Gloucester, I waited upon my friend Dean Tucker. He was
+pleased to hear of the great progress I had made since he left me. On
+communicating to him my intention of making interest with the editors of
+some provincial papers, to enlighten the public mind, and with the
+inhabitants of some respectable places, for petitions to Parliament,
+relative to the abolition of the Slave Trade, he approved of it, and
+introduced me to Mr. Raikes, the proprietor of the respectable paper
+belonging to that city. Mr. Raikes acknowledged, without any hesitation,
+the pleasure he should have in serving such a noble cause; and he
+promised to grant me, from time to time, a corner in his paper, for such
+things as I might point out to him for insertion. This promise he
+performed afterwards, without any pecuniary consideration, and solely on
+the ground of benevolence. He promised also his assistance as to the
+other object, for the promotion of which I left him several of my
+_Summary View_ to distribute.
+
+At Worcester I trod over the same ground, and with the same success.
+Timothy Bevington, of the religious society of the Quakers, was the only
+person to whom I had an introduction there: he accompanied me to the
+mayor, to the editor of the Worcester paper, and to several others,
+before each of whom I pleaded the cause of the oppressed Africans in the
+best manner I was able. I dilated both on the inhumanity and on the
+impolicy of the trade, which I supported by the various facts recently
+obtained at Bristol. I desired, however, as far as petitions were
+concerned, (and this desire I expressed on all other similar occasions,)
+that no attempt should be made to obtain these, till such information
+had been circulated on the subject, that every one, when called upon,
+might judge, from his knowledge of it, how far he would feel it right to
+join in it. For this purpose I left also here several of my _Summary
+View_ for distribution.
+
+After my arrival at Chester, I went to the bishop's residence, but I
+found he was not there. Knowing no other person in the place, I wrote a
+note to Mr. Cowdroy, whom I understood to be the editor of the Chester
+paper, soliciting an interview with him, I explained my wishes to him on
+both subjects. He seemed to be greatly rejoiced, when we met, that such
+a measure as that of the abolition of the Slave Trade was in
+contemplation. Living at so short a distance from Liverpool, and in a
+country from which so many persons were constantly going to Africa, he
+was by no means ignorant, as some were, of the nature of this cruel
+traffic; but yet he had no notion that I had probed it so deeply, or
+that I had brought to light such important circumstances concerning it,
+as he found by my conversation. He made me a hearty offer of his
+services on this occasion, and this expressly without fee or reward. I
+accepted them most joyfully and gratefully. It was, indeed, a most
+important thing, to have a station so near the enemy's camp, where we
+could watch their motions, and meet any attack which might be made from
+it. And this office of a sentinel Mr. Cowdroy performed with great
+vigilance; and when he afterwards left Chester for Manchester, to
+establish a paper there, he carried with him the same friendly
+disposition towards our cause.
+
+My first introduction at Liverpool was to William Rathbone, a member of
+the religious society of the Quakers. He was the same person who, before
+the formation of our committee, had procured me copies of several of the
+muster-rolls of the slave-vessels belonging to that port, so that,
+though we were not personally known, yet we were not strangers to each
+other. Isaac Hadwen, a respectable member of the same society, was the
+person whom I saw next. I had been introduced to him, previously to my
+journey, when he was at London, at the yearly meeting of the Quakers, so
+that no letter to him was necessary. As Mr. Roscoe had generally given
+the profits of _The Wrongs of Africa_ to our committee, I made no
+scruple of calling upon him. His reception of me was very friendly, and
+he introduced me afterwards to Dr. Currie, who had written the preface
+to that poem. There was also a fourth upon whom I called, though I did
+not know him. His name was Edward Rushton: he had been an officer in a
+slave-ship, but had lost his sight, and had become an enemy to that
+trade. On passing through Chester, I had heard, for the first time, that
+he had published a poem called _West Indian Eclogues_, with a view of
+making the public better acquainted with the evil of the Slave Trade,
+and of exciting their indignation against it. Of the three last it may
+be observed, that, having come forward thus early, as labourers, they
+deserve to be put down, as I have placed them in the map, among the
+forerunners and coadjutors in this great cause, for each published his
+work before any efforts were made publicly, or without knowing that any
+were intended. Rushton, also, had the boldness, though then living in
+Liverpool, to affix his name to his work. These were the only persons
+whom I knew for some time after my arrival in that place.
+
+It may not, perhaps, be necessary to enter so largely into my
+proceedings at Liverpool as at Bristol. The following account,
+therefore, may suffice:--
+
+In my attempts to add to my collection of specimens of African produce,
+I was favoured with a sample of gum ruber astringents, of cotton from
+the Gambia, of indigo and musk, of long pepper, of black pepper from
+Whidah, of mahogany from Calabar, and of cloths of different colours,
+made by the natives, which, while they gave other proofs of the quality
+of their own cotton, gave proofs, also, of the variety of their dyes.
+
+I made interest at the Custom-house for various exports and imports, and
+for copies of the muster-rolls of several slave-vessels, besides those
+of vessels employed in other trades.
+
+By looking out constantly for information on this great subject, I was
+led to the examination of a printed card or table of the dock duties of
+Liverpool, which was published annually. The town of Liverpool had so
+risen in opulence and importance from only a fishing-village, that the
+corporation seemed to have a pride in giving a public view of this
+increase. Hence they published and circulated this card. Now the card
+contained one, among other facts, which was almost as precious, in a
+political point of view, as any I had yet obtained. It stated that in
+the year 1772, when I knew that a hundred vessels sailed out of
+Liverpool for the coast of Africa, the dock-duties amounted to 4552_l._,
+and that in 1779, when I knew that, in consequence of the war, only
+eleven went from thence to the same coast, they amounted to 4957_l_.
+From these facts put together, two conclusions were obvious. The first
+was, that the opulence of Liverpool, as far as the entry of vessels into
+its ports, and the dock-duties arising from thence, were concerned, was
+not indebted to the Slave Trade; for these duties were highest when it
+had only eleven ships in that employ. The second was, that there had
+been almost a practical experiment with respect to the abolition of it;
+for the vessels in it had been gradually reduced from one hundred to
+eleven, and yet the West Indians had not complained of their ruin, nor
+had the merchants or manufacturers suffered, nor had Liverpool been
+affected by the change.
+
+There were specimens of articles in Liverpool, which I entirely
+overlooked at Bristol, and which I believed I should have overlooked
+here also, had it not been for seeing them at a window in a shop; I mean
+those of different iron instruments used in this cruel traffic. I bought
+a pair of the iron hand-cuffs with which the men-slaves are confined.
+The right-hand wrist of one, and the left of another, are almost brought
+into contact by these, and fastened together, as the figure A in the
+annexed plate represents, by a little bolt with a small padlock at the
+end of it.
+
+[Illustration: Handcuffs]
+
+I bought also a pair of shackles for the legs. These are represented by
+the figure B.
+
+The right ancle of one man is fastened to the left of another, as the
+reader will observe, by similar means. I bought these, not because it
+was difficult to conceive how the unhappy victims of this execrable
+trade were confined, but to show the fact that they were so. For what
+was the inference from it, but that they did not leave their own country
+willingly; that, when they were in the holds of the slave-vessels, they
+were not in the Elysium which had been represented; and that there was a
+fear either that they would make their escape, or punish their
+oppressors?
+
+[Illustration: Shackles for the legs]
+
+I bought also a thumb-screw at this shop. The thumbs are put into this
+instrument through the two circular holes at the top of it. By turning a
+key, a bar rises up by means of a screw from C to D, and the pressure
+upon them becomes painful. By turning it further you may make the blood
+start from the ends of them. By taking the key away, as at E, you leave
+the tortured person in agony, without any means of extricating himself,
+or of being extricated by others. This screw, as I was then informed,
+was applied by way of punishment, in case of obstinacy in the slaves, or
+for any other reputed offence, at the discretion of the captain.
+
+At the same place I bought another instrument which I saw. It was called
+a speculum oris. The dotted lines in the figure on the right hand of the
+screw represent it when shut, the black lines when open. It is opened,
+as at G H, by a screw below with a nob at the end of it. This instrument
+is known among surgeons, having been invented to assist them in
+wrenching open the mouth as in the case of a locked jaw; but it had got
+into use in this trade.
+
+[Illustration: Thumb screw]
+
+[Illustration: Speculum oris]
+
+On asking the seller of the instruments on what occasion it was used
+there, he replied that the slaves were frequently so sulky as to shut
+their mouths against all sustenance, and this with a determination to
+die; and that it was necessary their mouths should be forced open to
+throw in nutriment, that they who had purchased them might incur no loss
+by their death.
+
+The town-talk of Liverpool was much of the same nature as that at
+Bristol on the subject of this trade. Horrible facts concerning it were
+in everybody's mouth; but they were more numerous, as was likely to be
+the case where eighty vessels were employed from one port, and only
+eighteen from the other. The people, too, at Liverpool seemed to be more
+hardened, or they related them with more coldness or less feeling. This
+may be accounted for from the greater number of those facts, as just
+related, the mention of which, as it was of course more frequent,
+occasioned them to lose their power of exciting surprise. All this I
+thought in my favour, as I should more easily, or with less
+obnoxiousness, come to the knowledge of what I wanted to obtain.
+
+My friend William Rathbone, who had been looking out to supply me with
+intelligence, but who was desirous that I should not be imposed upon,
+and that I should get it from the fountainhead, introduced me to Mr.
+Norris for this purpose. Norris had been formerly a slave-captain, but
+had quitted the trade, and settled as a merchant in a different line of
+business. He was a man of quick penetration, and of good talents, which
+he had cultivated to advantage, and he had a pleasing address both as to
+speech and manners. He received me with great politeness, and offered me
+all the information I desired. I was with him five or six times at his
+own house for this purpose. The substance of his communications on these
+occasions I shall now put down, and I beg the reader's particular
+attention to it, as he will be referred to it in other parts of this
+work.
+
+With respect to the produce of Africa, Mr. Norris enumerated many
+articles in which a new and valuable trade might be opened, of which he
+gave me one, namely, the black pepper from Whidah before mentioned. This
+he gave me, to use his own expressions, as one argument among many
+others of the impolicy of the Slave Trade, which, by turning the
+attention of the inhabitants to the persons of one another for sale,
+hindered foreigners from discovering, and themselves from cultivating,
+many of the valuable productions of their own soil.
+
+On the subject of procuring slaves, he gave it as his decided opinion
+that many of the inhabitants of Africa were kidnapped by each other, as
+they were travelling on the roads, or fishing in the creeks, or
+cultivating their little spots. Having learned their language, he had
+collected the fact from various quarters, but more particularly from the
+accounts of slaves whom he had transported in his own vessels. With
+respect, however, to Whidah, many came from thence who were reduced to
+slavery in a different manner. The king of Dahomey, whose life (with the
+wars and customs of the Dahomans) he said he was then writing, and who
+was a very despotic prince, made no scruple of seizing his own subjects,
+and of selling them, if he was in want of any of the articles which the
+slave-vessels would afford him. The history of this prince's life he
+lent me afterwards to read, while it was yet in manuscript, in which I
+observed that he had recorded all the facts now mentioned. Indeed he
+made no hesitation to state them, either when we were by ourselves, or
+when others were in company with us. He repeated them at one time in the
+presence both of Mr. Cruden and Mr. Coupland. The latter was then a
+slave-merchant at Liverpool. He seemed to be fired at the relation of
+these circumstances. Unable to restrain himself longer, he entered into
+a defence of the trade, both as to the humanity and the policy of it;
+but Mr. Norris took up his arguments in both these cases, and answered
+them in a solid manner.
+
+With respect to the Slave Trade as it affected the health of our seamen,
+Mr. Norris admitted it to be destructive; but I did not stand in need of
+this information, as I knew this part of the subject, in consequence of
+my familiarity with the muster-rolls, better than himself.
+
+He admitted it also to be true, that they were too frequently
+ill-treated in this trade. A day or two after our conversation on this
+latter subject he brought me the manuscript journal of a voyage to
+Africa, which had been kept by a mate, with whom he was then acquainted.
+He brought it to me to read, as it might throw some light upon the
+subject on which we had talked last. In this manuscript various
+instances of cruel usage towards seamen were put down, from which it
+appeared that the mate, who wrote it, had not escaped himself.
+
+At the last interview we had, he seemed to be so satisfied of the
+inhumanity, injustice, and impolicy of the trade, that he made me a
+voluntary offer of certain clauses, which he had been thinking of, and
+which, he believed, if put into an Act of Parliament, would judiciously
+effect its abolition. The offer of these clauses I embraced eagerly. He
+dictated them, and I wrote. I wrote them in a small book which I had
+then in my pocket. They were these:--
+
+No vessel, under a heavy penalty, to supply foreigners with slaves.
+
+Every vessel to pay to government a tax for a register on clearing out
+to supply our own islands with slaves.
+
+Every such vessel to be prohibited from purchasing or bringing home any
+of the productions of Africa.
+
+Every such vessel to be prohibited from bringing home a passenger, or
+any article of produce, from the West Indies.
+
+A bounty to be given to every vessel trading in the natural productions
+of Africa. This bounty to be paid in part out of the tax arising from
+the registers of the slave-vessels.
+
+Certain establishments to be made by government in Africa, in the
+Bananas, in the Isles de Los, on the banks of the Camaranca, and in
+other places, for the encouragement and support of the new trade to be
+substituted there.
+
+Such then were the services, which Mr. Norris, at the request of William
+Rathbone, rendered me at Liverpool, during my stay there; and I have
+been very particular in detailing them, because I shall be obliged to
+allude to them, as I have before observed, on some important occasions
+in a future part of the work.
+
+On going my rounds one day, I met accidentally with Captain Chaffers.
+This gentleman either was or had been in the West India employ. His
+heart had beaten in sympathy with mine, and he had greatly favoured our
+cause. He had seen me at Mr. Norris's, and learned my errand there. He
+told me he could introduce me in a few minutes, as we were then near at
+hand, to Captain Lace, if I chose it. Captain Lace, he said, had been
+long in the Slave Trade, and could give me very accurate information
+about it. I accepted his offer. On talking to Captain Lace, relative to
+the productions of Africa, he told me that mahogany grew at Calabar. He
+began to describe a tree of that kind, which he had seen there. This
+tree was from about eighteen inches to two feet in diameter, and about
+sixty feet high, or, as he expressed it, of the height of a tall
+chimney. As soon as he mentioned Calabar, a kind of horror came over me.
+His name became directly associated in my mind with the place. It almost
+instantly occurred to me, that he commanded the Edgar out of Liverpool,
+when the dreadful massacre there, as has been related, took place.
+Indeed I seemed to be so confident of it, that, attending more to my
+feelings than to my reason at this moment, I accused him with being
+concerned in it. This produced great confusion among us. For he looked
+incensed at Captain Chaffers, as if he had introduced me to him for this
+purpose. Captain Chaffers again seemed to be all astonishment that I
+should have known of this circumstance, and to be vexed that I should
+have mentioned it in such a manner. I was also in a state of trembling
+myself. Captain Lace could only say it was a bad business. But he never
+defended himself, nor those concerned in it. And we soon parted, to the
+great joy of us all.
+
+Soon after this interview, I began to perceive that I was known in
+Liverpool, as well as the object for which I came. Mr. Coupland, the
+slave-merchant, with whom I had disputed at Mr. Norris's house, had
+given the alarm to those who were concerned in the trade, and Captain
+Lace, as may be now easily imagined, had spread it. This knowledge of me
+and of my errand was almost immediately productive of two effects, the
+first of which I shall now mention.
+
+I had a private room at the King's Arms tavern, besides my bed-room,
+where I used to meditate and to write; but I generally dined in public.
+The company at dinner had hitherto varied but little as to number, and
+consisted of those, both from the town and country, who had been
+accustomed to keep up a connexion with the house. But now things were
+altered, and many people came to dine there daily with a view of seeing
+me, as if I had been some curious creature imported from foreign parts.
+They thought, also, they could thus have an opportunity of conversing
+with me. Slave-merchants and slave-captains came in among others for
+this purpose. I had observed this difference in the number of our
+company for two or three days. Dale, the master of the tavern, had
+observed it also, and told me in a good-natured manner, that many of
+these were my visitors, and that I was likely to bring him a great deal
+of custom. In a little time, however, things became serious; for they,
+who came to see me, always started the abolition of the Slave Trade as
+the subject for conversation. Many entered into the justification of
+this trade with great warmth, as if to ruffle my temper, or at any rate
+to provoke me to talk. Others threw out, with the same view, that men
+were going about to abolish it, who would have done much better if they
+had stayed at home. Others said they had heard of a person turned mad,
+who had conceived the thought of destroying Liverpool, and all its
+glory. Some gave as a toast, Success to the trade, and then laughed
+immoderately, and watched me when I took my glass to see if I would
+drink it. I saw the way in which things were now going, and I believed
+it would be proper that I should come to some fixed resolutions; such
+as, whether I should change my lodgings, and whether I should dine in
+private; and if not, what line of conduct it would become me to pursue
+on such occasions. With respect to changing my lodgings and dining in
+private, I conceived, if I were to do either of these things, that I
+should be showing an unmanly fear of my visiters, which they would turn
+to their own advantage. I conceived too, that, if I chose to go on as
+before, and to enter into conversation with them on the subject of the
+abolition of the Slave Trade, I might be able, by having such an
+assemblage of persons daily, to gather all the arguments which they
+could collect on the other side of our question, an advantage which I
+should one day feel in the future management of the cause. With respect
+to the line, which I should pursue in the case of remaining in the place
+of my abode and in my former habits, I determined never to start the
+subject of the abolition myself--never to abandon it when started--never
+to defend it but in a serious and dignified manner--and never to
+discover any signs of irritation, whatever provocation might be given
+me. By this determination I abided rigidly. The King's Arms became now
+daily the place for discussion on this subject. Many tried to insult me,
+but to no purpose. In all these discussions I found the great advantage
+of having brought Mr. Falconbridge with me from Bristol; for he was
+always at the table; and when my opponents, with a disdainful look,
+tried to ridicule my knowledge, among those present, by asking me if I
+had ever been on the coast of Africa myself, he used generally to reply,
+"But I have. I know all your proceedings there, and that his statements
+are true." These and other words put in by him, who was an athletic and
+resolute-looking man, were of great service to me. All disinterested
+persons, of whom there were four or five daily in the room, were
+uniformly convinced by our arguments, and took our part, and some of
+them very warmly. Day after day we beat our opponents out of the field,
+as many of the company acknowledged, to their no small notification, in
+their presence. Thus, while we served the cause by discovering all that
+could be said against it, we served it by giving numerous individuals
+proper ideas concerning it, and of interesting them in our favour.
+
+The second effect which I experienced was, that from this time I could
+never get any one to come forward as an evidence to serve the cause.
+There were, I believe, hundreds of persons in Liverpool, and in the
+neighbourhood of it, who had been concerned in this traffic, and who had
+left it, all of whom could have given such testimony concerning it as
+would have insured its abolition. But none of them would now speak out.
+Of these, indeed, there were some, who were alive to the horrors of it,
+and who lamented that it should still continue. But yet even these were
+backward in supporting me. All that they did was just privately to see
+me, to tell me that I was right, and to exhort me to persevere: but as
+to coming forward to be examined publicly, my object was so unpopular,
+and would become so much more so when brought into parliament, that they
+would have their houses pulled down, if they should then appear as
+public instruments in the annihilation of the trade. With this account I
+was obliged to rest satisfied; nor could I deny, when I considered the
+spirit, which had manifested itself, and the extraordinary number of
+interested persons in the place, that they had some reason for their
+fears; and that these fears were not groundless, appeared afterwards;
+for Dr. Binns, a respectable physician belonging to the religious
+society of the Quakers, and to whom Isaac Hadwen had introduced me, was
+near falling into a mischievous plot, which had been laid against him,
+because he was one of the subscribers to the institution for the
+abolition of the Slave Trade, and because he was suspected of having
+aided me in promoting that object.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Hostile disposition towards the author increases, on account of his
+known patronage of the seamen employed in the Slave Trade; manner of
+procuring and paying them at Liverpool; their treatment and
+mortality.--Account of the murder of Peter Green; trouble taken by the
+author to trace it; his narrow escape.--Goes to Lancaster, but returns
+to Liverpool; leaves the latter place.
+
+
+It has appeared that a number of persons used to come and see me, out of
+curiosity, at the King's Arms tavern; and that these manifested a bad
+disposition towards me, which was near breaking out into open insult.
+Now the cause of all this was, as I have observed, the knowledge which
+people had obtained relative to my errand at this place. But this
+hostile disposition was increased by another circumstance, which I am
+now to mention. I had been so shocked at the treatment of the seamen
+belonging to the slave-vessels at Bristol, that I determined, on my
+arrival at Liverpool, to institute an inquiry concerning it there also.
+I had made considerable progress in it, so that few seamen were landed
+from such vessels, but I had some communication with them; and though no
+one else would come near me, to give me any information about the trade,
+these were always forward to speak to me, and to tell me their
+grievances, if it were only with the hope of being able to get redress.
+The consequence of this was, that they used to come to the King's Arms
+tavern to see me. Hence, one, two, and three, were almost daily to be
+found about the door; and this happened quite as frequently after the
+hostility just mentioned had shown itself, as before. They, therefore,
+who came to visit me out of curiosity, could not help seeing my sailor
+visiters; and on inquiring into their errand, they became more than ever
+incensed against me.
+
+The first result of this increased hostility towards me was an
+application from some of them to the master of the tavern, that he would
+not harbour me. This he communicated to me in a friendly manner, but he
+was by no means desirous that I should leave him. On the other hand, he
+hoped I would stay long enough to accomplish my object. I thought it
+right, however, to take the matter into consideration; and having
+canvassed it, I resolved to remain with him, for the reasons mentioned
+in the former chapter. But, that I might avoid doing anything that would
+be injurious to his interest, as well as in some measure avoid giving
+unnecessary offence to others, I took lodgings in Williamson Square,
+where I retired to write, and occasionally to sleep, and to which place
+all seamen, desirous of seeing me, were referred. Hence I continued to
+get the same information as before, but in a less obnoxious and
+injurious manner.
+
+The history of the seamen employed in the slave-vessels belonging to the
+port of Liverpool, I found to be similar to that of those from Bristol.
+
+They who went into this trade were of two classes. The first consisted
+of those who were ignorant of it, and to whom generally improper
+representations of advantage had been made, for the purpose of enticing
+them into it. The second consisted of those who, by means of a regular
+system, kept up by the mates and captains, had been purposely brought by
+their landlords into distress, from which they could only be extricated
+by going into this hateful employ. How many have I seen, with tears in
+their eyes, put into boats, and conveyed to vessels, which were then
+lying at the Black Rock, and which were only waiting to receive them to
+sail away!
+
+The manner of paying them in the currency of the islands was the same as
+at Bristol. But this practice was not concealed at Liverpool, as it was
+at the former place. The articles of agreement were printed, so that all
+who chose to buy might read them. At the same time it must be observed,
+that seamen were never paid in this manner in any other employ; and that
+the African wages, though nominally higher for the sake of procuring
+hands, were thus made to be actually lower than in other trades.
+
+The loss by death was so similar, that it did not signify whether the
+calculation on a given number was made either at this or the other port.
+I had, however, a better opportunity at this than I had at the other, of
+knowing the loss, as it related to those whose constitutions had been
+ruined, or who had been rendered incapable by disease, of continuing
+their occupation at sea. For the slave-vessels which returned to
+Liverpool, sailed immediately into the docks, so that I saw at once
+their sickly and ulcerated crews. The number of vessels, too, was so
+much greater from this, than from any other port, that their sick made a
+more conspicuous figure in the infirmary; and they were seen also more
+frequently in the streets.
+
+With respect to their treatment, nothing could be worse. It seemed to me
+to be but one barbarous system from the beginning to the end. I do not
+say barbarous, as if premeditated, but it became so in consequence of
+the savage habits gradually formed by a familiarity with miserable
+sights, and with a course of action inseparable from the trade. Men in
+their first voyages usually disliked the traffic; and if they were happy
+enough then to abandon it, they usually escaped the disease of a
+hardened heart. But if they went a second and a third time, their
+disposition became gradually changed. It was impossible for them to be
+accustomed to carry away men and women by force, to keep them in chains,
+to see their tears, to hear their mournful lamentations, to behold the
+dead and the dying, to be obliged to keep up a system of severity amidst
+all this affliction,--in short, it was impossible for them to be
+witnesses, and this for successive voyages, to the complicated mass of
+misery passing in a slave-ship, without losing their finer feelings, or
+without contracting those habits of moroseness and cruelty which would
+brutalize their nature. Now, if we consider that persons could not
+easily become captains (and to these the barbarities were generally
+chargeable by actual perpetration, or by consent) till they had been two
+or three voyages in this employ, we shall see the reason why it would be
+almost a miracle, if they, who were thus employed in it, were not rather
+to become monsters, than to continue to be men.
+
+While I was at Bristol, I heard from an officer of the Alfred, who gave
+me the intelligence privately, that the steward of a Liverpool ship,
+whose name was Green, had been murdered in that ship. The Alfred was in
+Bonny river at the same time, and his own captain, (so infamous for his
+cruelty, as has been before shown,) was on board when it happened. The
+circumstances, he said, belonging to this murder, were, if report were
+true, of a most atrocious nature, and deserved to be made the subject of
+inquiry. As to the murder itself, he observed, it had passed as a
+notorious and uncontradicted fact.
+
+This account was given me just as I had made an acquaintance with Mr.
+Falconbridge, and I informed him of it; he said he had no doubt of its
+truth; for in his last voyage he went to Bonny himself, where the ship
+was then lying, in which the transaction happened: the king and several
+of the black traders told him of it. The report then current was simply
+this, that the steward had been barbarously beaten one evening; that
+after this he was let down with chains upon him into a boat, which was
+alongside of the ship, and that the next morning he was found dead.
+
+On my arrival at Liverpool, I resolved to inquire into the truth of this
+report. On looking into one of the wet docks, I saw the name of the
+vessel alluded to; I walked over the decks of several others, and got on
+board her. Two people were walking up and down her, and one was leaning
+upon a rail by the side. I asked the latter how many slaves this ship
+had carried in her last voyage; he replied he could not tell; but one of
+the two persons walking about could answer me, as he had sailed out and
+returned in her. This man came up to us, and joined in conversation. He
+answered my questions and many others, and would have shown me the ship,
+but on asking him how many seamen had died on the voyage, he changed his
+manner, and said, with apparent hesitation, that he could not tell. I
+asked him next, what had become, of the steward Green. He said he
+believed he was dead. I asked how the seamen had been used. He said, not
+worse than others. I then asked whether Green had been used worse than
+others. He replied, he did not then recollect. I found that he was now
+quite upon his guard, and as I could get no satisfactory answer from him
+I left the ship.
+
+On the next day I looked over the muster-roll of this vessel; on
+examining it, I found that sixteen of the crew had died; I found also
+the name of Peter Green; I found, again, that the latter had been put
+down among the dead. I observed, also, that the ship had left Liverpool
+on the 5th of June, 1786, and had returned on the 5th of June, 1787, and
+that Peter Green was put down as having died on the 19th of September;
+from all which circumstances it was evident that he must, as my Bristol
+informant asserted, have died upon the Coast.
+
+Notwithstanding this extraordinary coincidence of name, mortality, time,
+and place, I could gain no further intelligence about the affair till
+within about ten days before I left Liverpool; when among the seamen,
+who came to apply to me in Williamson Square was George Ormond. He came
+to inform me of his own ill-usage; from which circumstance I found that
+he had sailed in the same ship with Peter Green. This led me to inquire
+into the transaction in question, and I received from him the following
+account.
+
+Peter Green had been shipped as steward. A black woman, of the name of
+Rodney, went out in the same vessel; she belonged to the owners of it,
+and was to be an interpretess to the slaves who should be purchased.
+About five in the evening, some time in the month of September, the
+vessel then lying in Bonny river, the captain, as was his custom, went
+on shore. In his absence, Rodney, the black woman, asked Green for the
+keys of the pantry, which he refused her, alleging that the captain had
+already beaten him for having given them to her on a former occasion,
+when she drank the wine. The woman, being passionate, struck him, and a
+scuffle ensued, out of which Green extricated himself as well as he
+could.
+
+When the scuffle was over the woman retired to the cabin, and appeared
+pensive. Between eight and nine in the evening, the captain, who was
+attended by the captain of the Alfred, came on board; Rodney immediately
+ran to him, and informed him that Green had made an assault upon her.
+The captain, without any inquiry, beat him severely, and ordered his
+hands to be made fast to some bolts on the starboard side of the ship
+and under the half deck, and then flogged him himself, using the lashes
+of the cat-of-nine-tails upon his back at one time, and the double
+walled knot at the end of it upon his head at another; and stopping to
+rest at intervals, and using each hand alternately, that he might strike
+with the greater severity.
+
+The pain had now become so very severe, that Green cried out, and
+entreated the captain of the Alfred, who was standing by, to pity his
+hard case, and to intercede for him. But the latter replied, that he
+would have served me in the same manner. Unable to find a friend here,
+he called upon the chief mate; but this only made matters worse, for the
+captain then ordered the latter to flog him also; which he did for some
+time, using however only the lashes of the instrument. Green then called
+in his distress upon the second mate to speak for him; but the second
+mate was immediately ordered to perform the same cruel office, and was
+made to persevere in it till the lashes were all worn into threads. But
+the barbarity did not close here; for the captain, on seeing the
+instrument now become useless, ordered another, with which he flogged
+him as before, beating him at times over the head with the double-walled
+knot, and changing his hands, and cursing his own left hand for not
+being able to strike so severe a blow as his right.
+
+The punishment, as inflicted by all parties, had now lasted two hours
+and a half, when George Ormond was ordered to cut down one of the arms,
+and the boatswain the other, from the places of their confinement; this
+being done, Green lay motionless on the deck. He attempted to utter
+something, Ormond understood it to be the word water; but no water was
+allowed him. The captain, on the other hand, said he had not yet done
+with him, and ordered him to be confined with his arms across, his right
+hand to his left foot, and his left hand to his right foot. For this
+purpose the carpenter brought shackles, and George Ormond was compelled
+to put them on. The captain then ordered some tackle to be made fast to
+the limbs of the said Peter Green, in which situation he was then
+hoisted up, and afterwards let down into a boat, which was lying
+alongside the ship. Michael Cunningham was then sent to loose the
+tackle, and to leave him there.
+
+In the middle watch, or between one and two next morning, George Ormond
+looked out of one of the port-holes, and called to Green, but received
+no answer. Between two and three, Paul Berry, a seaman, was sent down
+into the boat, and found him dead. He made his report to one of the
+officers of the ship. About five in the morning the body was brought up,
+and laid on the waist near the half-deck door. The captain on seeing the
+body when he rose, expressed no concern, but ordered it to be knocked
+out of irons, and to be buried at the usual place of interment for
+seamen, or Bonny Point. I may now observe, that the deceased was in good
+health before the punishment took place, and in high spirits; for he
+played upon the flute only a short time before Rodney asked him for the
+keys, while those seamen, who were in health, danced.
+
+On hearing this cruel relation from George Ormond, who was throughout a
+material witness to the scene, I had no doubt in my own mind of the
+truth of it; but I thought it right to tell him at once that I had seen
+a person, about four weeks ago, who had been the same voyage with him
+and Peter Green, but yet who had no recollection of these circumstances.
+Upon this he looked quite astonished, and began to grow angry; he
+maintained he had seen the whole; he had also held the candle himself
+during the whole punishment. He asserted that one candle and half of
+another were burnt out while it lasted. He said also that, while the
+body lay in the waist, he had handled the abused parts, and had put
+three of his fingers into a hole, made by the double walled knot, in the
+head, from whence a quantity of blood and, he believed, brains issued.
+He then challenged me to bring the man, before him; I desired him upon
+this to be cool, and to come to me the next day, and I would then talk
+with him again upon the subject.
+
+In the interim I consulted the muster-roll of the vessel again; I found
+the name of George Ormond; he had sailed in her out of Liverpool, and
+had been discharged at the latter end of January in the West Indies, as
+he had told me. I found also the names of Michael Cunningham and of Paul
+Berry, whom he had mentioned. It was obvious also that Ormond's account
+of the captain of the Alfred being on board at the time of the
+punishment tallied with that given me at Bristol by an officer of that
+vessel, and that his account of letting down Peter Green into the boat
+tallied with that which Mr. Falconbridge, as I mentioned before, had
+heard from the king and the black traders in Bonny river.
+
+When he came to me next day, he came in high spirits. He said he had
+found out the man whom I had seen. The man, however, when he talked to
+him about the murder of Peter Green, acknowledged every thing concerning
+it. Ormond intimated that this man was to sail again in the same ship
+under the promise of being an officer, and that he had been kept on
+board, and had been enticed to a second voyage, for no other purpose
+than that he might be prevented from divulging the matter. I then asked
+Ormond, whether he thought the man would acknowledge the murder in my
+hearing. He replied, "that, if I were present, he thought he would not
+say much about it, as he was soon to be under the same captain, but that
+he would not deny it. If, however, I were out of sight, though I might
+be in hearing, he believed he would acknowledge the facts."
+
+By the assistance of Mr. Falconbridge, I found a public-house, which had
+two rooms in it: nearly at the top of the partition between them was a
+small window, which a person might look through by standing upon a
+chair. I desired Ormond, one evening, to invite the man into the larger
+room, in which he was to have a candle, and, to talk with him on the
+subject. I proposed to station myself in the smallest in the dark, so
+that by looking through the window I could both see and hear him, and
+yet be unperceived myself. The room, in which I was to be, was one where
+the dead were frequently carried to be owned. We were all in our places
+at the time appointed. I directly discovered that it was the same man
+with whom I had conversed on board the ship in the wet docks. I heard
+him distinctly relate many of the particulars of the murder, and
+acknowledge them all. Ormond, after having talked with him some time,
+said, "Well, then, you believe Peter Green was actually murdered?" He
+replied, "If Peter Green was not murdered, no man ever was." What
+followed I do not know. I had heard quite enough; and the room was so
+disagreeable in smell, that I did not choose to stay in it longer than
+was absolutely necessary.
+
+I own I was now quite satisfied that the murder had taken place, and my
+first thought was to bring the matter before the mayor, and to take up
+three of the officers of the ship. But, in mentioning my intention to my
+friends, I was dissuaded from it. They had no doubt but that in
+Liverpool, as there was now a notion that the Slave Trade would become a
+subject of parliamentary inquiry, every, effort would be made to
+overthrow me. They were of opinion also that such of the magistrates, as
+were interested in the trade, when applied to for warrants of
+apprehension, would contrive to give notice to the officers to escape.
+In addition to this they believed, that so many in the town were already
+incensed against me, that I should be torn to pieces, and the house
+where I lodged burnt down, if I were to make the attempt. I thought it
+right therefore to do nothing for the present; but I sent Ormond to
+London, to keep him out of the way of corruption, till I should make up
+my mind as to further proceedings on the subject.
+
+It is impossible, if I observe the bounds I have prescribed myself, and
+I believe the reader will be glad of it on account of his own feelings,
+that I should lay open the numerous cases, which came before me at
+Liverpool, relative to the ill-treatment of the seamen in this wicked
+trade. It may be sufficient to say, that they harassed my constitution,
+and affected my spirits daily. They were in my thoughts on my pillow
+after I retired to rest, and I found them before my eyes when I awoke.
+Afflicting, however, as they were, they were of great use in the
+promotion of our cause: for they served, whatever else failed, as a
+stimulus to perpetual energy: they made me think light of former
+labours, and they urged me imperiously to new. And here I may observe,
+that among the many circumstances which ought to excite our joy on
+considering the great event of the abolition of the Slave Trade, which
+has now happily taken place, there are few for which we ought to be more
+grateful, than that from this time our commerce ceases to breed such
+abandoned wretches: while those, who have thus been bred in it, and who
+may yet find employment in other trades, will, in the common course of
+nature, be taken off in a given time, so that our marine will at length
+be purified from a race of monsters, which have helped to cripple its
+strength, and to disgrace its character.
+
+The temper of many of the interested people of Liverpool had now become
+still more irritable, and their hostility more apparent than before. I
+received anonymous letters, entreating me to leave it, or I should
+otherwise never leave it alive. The only effect which this advice had
+upon me, was to make me more vigilant when I went out at night. I never
+stirred out at this time without Mr. Falconbridge; and he never
+accompanied me without being well armed. Of this, however, I knew
+nothing until we had left the place. There was certainly a time when I
+had reason to believe that I had a narrow escape. I was one day on the
+pier-head with many others looking at some little boats below at the
+time of a heavy gale. Several persons, probably out of curiosity, were
+hastening thither. I had seen all I intended to see, and was departing,
+when I noticed eight or nine persons making towards me. I was then only
+about eight or nine yards from the precipice of the pier, but going from
+it. I expected that they would have divided to let me through them;
+instead of which they closed upon me and bore me back. I was borne
+within a yard of the precipice, when I discovered my danger; and
+perceiving among them the murderer of Peter Green, and two others who
+had insulted me at the King's Arms, it instantly struck me that they had
+a design to throw me over the pier-head; which they might have done at
+this time, and yet have pleaded that I had been killed by accident.
+There was not a moment to lose. Vigorous on account of the danger, I
+darted forward. One of them, against whom I pushed myself, fell down:
+their ranks were broken; and I escaped, not without blows, amidst their
+imprecations and abuse.
+
+I determined now to go to Lancaster, to make some inquiries about the
+Slave Trade there. I had a letter of introduction to William Jepson, one
+of the religious society of the Quakers, for this purpose. I found from
+him, that, though there were slave-merchants at Lancaster, they made
+their outfits at Liverpool, as a more convenient port. I learnt too from
+others, that the captain of the last vessel, which had sailed out of
+Lancaster to the coast of Africa for slaves, had taken off so many of
+the natives treacherously, that any other vessel known to come from it
+would be cut off. There were only now one or two superannuated captains
+living in the place. Finding I could get no oral testimony, I was
+introduced into the Custom-house. Here I just looked over the
+muster-rolls of such slave-vessels as had formerly sailed from this
+port; and having found that the loss of seamen was precisely in the same
+proportion as elsewhere, I gave myself no further trouble, but left the
+place.
+
+On my return to Liverpool, I was informed by Mr. Falconbridge, that a
+ship-mate of Ormond, of the name of Patrick Murray, who had been
+discharged in the West Indies, had arrived there. This man, he said, had
+been to call upon me in my absence, to seek redress for his own bad
+usage; but in the course of conversation he had confirmed all the
+particulars as stated by Ormond, relative to the murder of Peter Green.
+On consulting the muster-roll of the ship, I found his name, and that he
+had been discharged in the West Indies on the 2nd of February. I
+determined, therefore, to see him. I cross-examined him in the best
+manner I could. I could neither make him contradict himself, nor say
+anything that militated against the testimony of Ormond. I was
+convinced, therefore, of the truth of the transaction; and, having
+obtained his consent, I sent him to London to stay with the latter, till
+he should hear further from me. I learnt also from Mr. Falconbridge,
+that visitors had continued to come to the King's Arms during my
+absence; that they had been very liberal of their abuse of me; and that
+one of them did not hesitate to say (which is remarkable) that "I
+deserved to be thrown over the pierhead."
+
+Finding now that I could get no further evidence; that the information
+which I had already obtained was considerable[A]; and that the committee
+had expressed an earnest desire, in a letter which I had received, that
+I would take into consideration the propriety of writing my Essay on the
+_Impolicy of the Slave Trade_ as soon as possible, I determined upon
+leaving Liverpool.
+
+[Footnote A: In London, Bristol, and Liverpool, I had already obtained
+the names of more than 20,000 seamen, in different voyages, knowing what
+had become of each.]
+
+I went round accordingly and took leave of my friends. The last of these
+was William Rathbone, and I have to regret, that it was also the last
+time I ever saw him. Independently of the gratitude I owed him for
+assisting me in this great cause, I respected him highly as a man: he
+possessed a fine understanding with a solid judgment: he was a person of
+extraordinary simplicity of manners. Though he lived in a state of
+pecuniary independence, he gave an example of great temperance, as well
+as of great humility of mind: but however humble he appeared, he had
+always the courage to dare to do that which was right, however it might
+resist the customs or the prejudices of men. In his own line of trade,
+which was that of a timber-merchant on an extensive scale, he would not
+allow any article to be sold for the use of a slave-ship, and he always
+refused those, who applied to him for materials for such purposes. But
+it is evident that it was his intention, if he had lived, to bear his
+testimony still more publicly upon this subject; for an advertisement,
+stating the ground of his refusal to furnish anything for this traffic
+upon Christian principles, with a memorandum for two advertisements in
+the Liverpool papers, was found among his papers at his decease.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+Author proceeds to Manchester; finds a spirit rising among the people
+there for the abolition of the Slave Trade; is requested to deliver a
+discourse on the subject of the Slave Trade; heads of it, and
+extracts.--Proceeds to Keddleston, and Birmingham; finds a similar
+spirit at the latter place.--Revisits Bristol; new and difficult
+situation there.--Author crosses the Severn at night; unsuccessful
+termination of his journey; returns to London.
+
+
+I now took my departure from Liverpool, and proceeded to Manchester,
+where I arrived on the Friday evening. On the Saturday morning, Mr.
+Thomas Walker, attended by Mr. Cooper and Mr. Bayley of Hope, called
+upon me. They were then strangers to me. They came, they said, having
+heard of my arrival, to congratulate me on the spirit which was then
+beginning to show itself among the people of Manchester, and of other
+places, on the subject of the Slave Trade, and which would
+unquestionably manifest itself further by breaking out into petitions to
+parliament for its abolition. I was much surprised at this information.
+I had devoted myself so entirely to my object, that I had never had time
+to read a newspaper since I left London. I never knew, therefore, till
+now, that the attention of the public had been drawn to the subject in
+such a manner. And as to petitions, though I myself had suggested the
+idea at Bridgewater, Bristol, Gloucester, and two, or three other
+places, I had only done it provisionally, and this without either the
+knowledge or the consent of the committee. The news, however, as it
+astonished, so it almost overpowered me with joy. I rejoiced in it,
+because it was a proof of the general good disposition of my countrymen;
+because it showed me that the cause was such as needed only to be known,
+to be patronized; and because the manifestation of this spirit seemed to
+me to be an earnest, that success would ultimately follow.
+
+The gentleman now mentioned took me away with them, and introduced me to
+Mr. Thomas Phillips. We conversed, at first, upon the discoveries made
+in my journey; but in a little time, understanding that I had been
+educated as a clergyman, they came upon me with one voice, as if it had
+been before agreed upon, to deliver a discourse the next day, which was
+Sunday, on the subject of the Slave Trade. I was always aware that it
+was my duty to do all that I could with propriety to serve the cause I
+had undertaken, and yet I found myself embarrassed at their request.
+Foreseeing, as I have before related, that this cause might demand my
+attention to it for the greatest part of my life, I had given up all
+thoughts of my profession. I had hitherto but seldom exercised it, and
+then only to oblige some friend. I doubted, too, at the first view of
+the thing, whether the pulpit ought to be made an engine for political
+purposes, though I could not but consider the Slave Trade as a mass of
+crimes, and therefore the effort to get rid of it as a Christian duty. I
+had an idea, too, that sacred matters should not be entered upon without
+due consideration, nor prosecuted in a hasty, but in a decorous and
+solemn manner. I saw besides that, as it was then two o'clock in the
+afternoon, and this sermon was to be forthcoming the next day, there was
+not sufficient time to compose it properly. All these difficulties I
+suggested to my new friends without any reserve. But nothing that I
+could urge would satisfy them. They would not hear of a refusal, and I
+was obliged to give my consent, though I was not reconciled to the
+measure.
+
+When I went into the church it was so full that I could scarcely get to
+my place; for notice had been publicly given, though I knew nothing of
+it, that such a discourse would be delivered. I was surprised, also, to
+find a great crowd of black people standing round the pulpit. There
+might be forty or fifty of them. The text that I took, as the best to be
+found in such a hurry, was the following:--"Thou shalt not oppress a
+stranger, for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers
+in the land of Egypt."
+
+I took an opportunity of showing, from these words, that Moses, in
+endeavouring to promote among the children of Israel a tender
+disposition towards those unfortunate strangers who had come under their
+dominion, reminded them of their own state when strangers in Egypt, as
+one of the most forcible arguments which could be used on such an
+occasion. For they could not have forgotten that the Egyptians "had made
+them serve with rigour; that they had made their lives bitter with hard
+bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the
+field; and that all the service, wherein they made them serve, was with
+rigour." The argument, therefore, of Moses was simply this:--"Ye knew
+well, when ye were strangers in Egypt, the nature of your own feelings.
+Were you not made miserable by your debased situation there? But if so,
+you must be sensible that the stranger, who has the same heart, or the
+same feelings with yourselves, must experience similar suffering, if
+treated in a similar manner. I charge you, then, knowing this, to stand
+clear of the crime of his oppression."
+
+The law, then, by which Moses commanded the children of Israel to
+regulate their conduct with respect to the usage of the stranger, I
+showed to be a law of universal and eternal obligation, and for this,
+among other reasons, that it was neither more nor less than the
+Christian law, which appeared afterwards, that we should not do that to
+others which we should be unwilling to have done unto ourselves.
+
+Having gone into these statements at some length, I made an application
+of them in the following words:--
+
+"This being the case, and this law of Moses being afterwards established
+into a fundamental precept of Christianity, I must apply it to facts of
+the present day, and I am sorry that I must apply it to--ourselves.
+
+"And first,--Are there no strangers whom we oppress? I fear the wretched
+African will say, that he drinks the cup of sorrow, and that he drinks
+it at our hands. Torn from his Native soil, and from his family and
+friends, he is immediately forced into a situation, of all others the
+most degrading, where he and his progeny are considered as cattle, as
+possessions, and as the possessions of a man to whom he never gave
+offence.
+
+"It is a melancholy fact, but it can be abundantly proved, that great
+numbers of the unfortunate strangers, who are carried from Africa to our
+colonies, are fraudulently and forcibly taken from their native soil. To
+descant but upon a single instance of the kind must be productive of
+pain to the ear of sensibility and freedom. Consider the sensations of
+the person, who is thus carried off by the ruffians, who have been
+lurking to intercept him. Separated from everything which he esteems in
+life, without the possibility even of bidding his friends adieu, beheld
+him overwhelmed in tears--wringing his hands in despair--looking
+backwards upon the spot where all his hopes and wishes lay;--while his
+family at home are waiting for him with anxiety and suspense--are
+waiting, perhaps, for sustenance--are agitated between hope and
+fear--till length of absence confirms the latter, and they are
+immediately plunged into inconceivable misery and distress.
+
+"If this instance, then, is sufficiently melancholy of itself, and is at
+all an act of oppression, how complicated will our guilt appear who are
+the means of snatching away thousands annually in the same manner, and
+who force them and their families into the same unhappy situation,
+without either remorse or shame!"
+
+Having proceeded to show, in a more particular manner than I can detail
+here, how, by means of the Slave Trade, we oppressed the stranger, I
+made an inquiry into the other branch of the subject, or how far we had
+a knowledge of his heart.
+
+To elucidate this point, I mentioned several specific instances out of
+those which I had collected in my journey, and which I could depend upon
+as authentic, of honour--gratitude--fidelity--filial, fraternal, and
+conjugal affection--and of the finest sensibility on the part of those
+who had been brought into our colonies from Africa in the character of
+slaves; and then I proceeded for a while in the following words:--
+
+"If, then, we oppress the stranger, as I have shown, and if, by a
+knowledge of his heart, we find that he is a person of the same passions
+and feelings as ourselves, we are certainly breaking, by means of the
+prosecution of the Slave Trade, that fundamental principle of
+Christianity, which says, that we shall not do that unto another which
+we wish should not be done unto ourselves, and, I fear, cutting
+ourselves off from all expectation of the Divine blessing. For how
+inconsistent is our conduct! We come into the temple of God; we fall
+prostrate before Him; we pray to Him, that He will have mercy upon us.
+But how shall He have mercy upon us, who have had no mercy upon others!
+We pray to Him, again, that He will deliver us from evil. But how shall
+He deliver us from evil, who are daily invading the rights of the
+injured African, and heaping misery on his head!"
+
+I attempted, lastly, to show, that, though the sin of the Slave Trade
+had been hitherto a sin of ignorance, and might, therefore, have so far
+been winked at, yet as the crimes and miseries belonging to it became
+known, it would attach even to those who had no concern in it, if they
+suffered it to continue either without notice or reproach, or if they
+did not exert themselves in a reasonable manner for its suppression. I
+noticed particularly, the case of Tyre and Sidon, which were the Bristol
+and the Liverpool of those times. A direct judgment had been pronounced
+by the prophet Joel against these cities, and, what is remarkable, for
+the prosecution of this same barbarous traffic. Thus, "And what have ye
+to do with me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? Ye
+have cast lots for my people. Ye have sold a girl for wine. The children
+of Judah, and the children of Jerusalem, have ye sold unto the Grecians,
+that ye might remove them far from their own border. Behold! I will
+raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will
+recompense your wickedness on your own heads." Such was the language of
+the prophet; and Tyre and Sidon fell, as he had pointed out, when the
+inhabitants were either cut off, or carried into slavery.
+
+Having thrown out these ideas to the notice of the audience, I concluded
+in the following words:--
+
+"If, then, we wish to avert the heavy national judgment which is hanging
+over our heads, (for must we not believe that our crimes towards the
+innocent Africans lie recorded against us in heaven?) let us endeavour
+to assert their cause. Let us nobly withstand the torrent of the evil,
+however inveterately it may be fixed among the customs of the times;
+not, however, using our liberty as a cloak of maliciousness against
+those, who, perhaps, without due consideration, have the misfortune to
+be concerned in it, but upon proper motives, and in a proper spirit, as
+the servants of God; so that if the sun should be turned into darkness,
+and the moon into blood, and the very heaven should fall upon us, we may
+fall in the general convulsion without dismay, conscious that we have
+done our duty in endeavouring to succour the distressed, and that the
+stain of the blood of Africa is not upon us."
+
+From Manchester I proceeded to Keddleston in Derbyshire, to spend a day
+with Lord Scarsdale, and to show him my little collection of African
+productions, and to inform him of my progress since I last saw him. Here
+a letter was forwarded to me from the Reverend John Toogood, of Keington
+Magna in Dorsetshire, though I was then unknown to him. He informed me
+that he had addressed several letters to the inhabitants of his own
+county, through their provincial paper, on the subject of the Slave
+Trade, which letters had produced a considerable effect. It appeared,
+however, that, when he began them, he did not know of the formation of
+our committee, or that he had a single coadjutor in the cause.
+
+From Keddleston I turned off to Birmingham, being desirous of visiting
+Bristol in my way to London, to see if anything new had occurred since I
+was there. I was introduced by letter, at Birmingham, to Sampson and
+Charles Lloyd, the brothers of John Lloyd, belonging to our committee,
+and members of the religious society of the Quakers. I was highly
+gratified in finding that these, in conjunction with Mr. Russell, had
+been attempting to awaken the attention of the inhabitants to this great
+subject, and that in consequence of their laudable efforts, a spirit was
+beginning to show itself there, as at Manchester, in favour of the
+abolition of the Slave Trade. The kind manner in which these received
+me, and the deep interest which they appeared to take in our cause, led
+me to an esteem for them, which, by means of subsequent visits, grew
+into a solid friendship.
+
+At length I arrived at Bristol about ten o'clock on Friday morning. But
+what was my surprise, when almost the first thing I heard from my friend
+Harry Gandy was, that a letter had been despatched to me to Liverpool,
+nearly a week ago, requesting me immediately to repair to this place;
+for that in consequence of notice from the lords of the Admiralty,
+advertised in the public papers, the trial of the chief mate, whom I had
+occasioned to be taken up at Bristol, for the murder of William Lines,
+was coming on at the Old Bailey, and that not an evidence was to be
+found. This intelligence almost paralyzed me. I cannot describe my
+feelings on receiving it. I reproached myself with my own obstinacy for
+having resisted the advice of Mr. Burges, as has been before explained.
+All his words now came fresh into my mind. I was terrified, too, with
+the apprehension that my own reputation was now at stake. I foresaw all
+the calumnies which would  be spread, if the evidences were not
+forthcoming on this occasion. I anticipated, also, the injury which the
+cause itself might sustain, if, at our outset, as it were, I should not
+be able to substantiate what I had publicly advanced; and yet the mayor
+of Bristol had heard and determined the case,--he had not only examined,
+but re-examined, the evidences,--he had not only committed, but
+re-committed, the accused: this was the only consolation I had. I was
+sensible, however, amidst all these workings of my mind, that not a
+moment was to be lost, and I began, therefore, to set on foot an inquiry
+as to the absent persons.
+
+On waiting upon the mother of William Lines, I learnt from her, that two
+out of four of the witnesses had been bribed by the slave-merchants, and
+sent to sea, that they might not be forthcoming at the time of the
+trial; that the two others had been tempted also, but that they had been
+enabled to resist the temptation; that, desirous of giving their
+testimony in this cause, they had gone into some coal-mine between Neath
+and Swansea, where they might support themselves till they should be
+called for; and that she had addressed a letter to them, at the request
+of Mr. Gandy, above a week ago, in which she had desired them to come to
+Bristol immediately, but that she had received no answer from them. She
+then concluded, either that her letter had miscarried, or that they had
+left the place.
+
+I determined to lose no time, after the receipt of this intelligence;
+and I prevailed upon a young man, whom my friend Harry Gandy had
+recommended to me, to set off directly, and to go in search of them. He
+was to travel all night, and to bring them, or, if weary himself with
+his journey, to send them up, without ever sleeping on the road. It was
+now between twelve and one in the afternoon. I saw him depart. In the
+interim I went to Thompson's, and other places, to inquire if any other
+of the seamen, belonging to the Thomas, were to be found; but, though I
+hunted diligently till four o'clock, I could learn nothing satisfactory.
+I then went to dinner, but I grew uneasy. I was fearful that my
+messenger might be at a loss, or that he might want assistance on some
+occasion or other. I now judged that it would have been more prudent if
+two persons had been sent, who might have conferred with each other, and
+who might have divided, when they had reached Neath, and gone to
+different mines, to inquire for the witnesses. These thoughts disturbed
+me. Those, also, which had occurred when I first heard of the vexatious
+way in which things were situated, renewed themselves painfully to my
+mind. My own obstinacy in resisting the advice of Mr. Burges, and the
+fear of injury to my own reputation, and to that of the cause I had
+undertaken, were again before my eyes. I became still more uneasy: and I
+had no way of relieving my feelings, but by resolving to follow the
+young man, and to give him all the aid in my power.
+
+It was now near six o'clock. The night was cold and rainy and almost
+dark. I got down, however, safe to the passage-house, and desired to be
+conveyed across the Severn. The people in the house tried to dissuade me
+from my design. They said no one would accompany me, for it was quite a
+tempest. I replied that I would pay those handsomely who would go with
+me. A person present asked me if I would give him three guineas for a
+boat. I replied I would. He could not for shame retract. He went out,
+and in about half an hour brought a person with him. We were obliged to
+have a lanthorn as far as the boat. We got on board, and went off. But
+such a passage I had never before witnessed. The wind was furious. The
+waves ran high. I could see nothing but white foam. The boat, also, was
+tossed up and down in such a manner that it was with great difficulty I
+could keep my seat. The rain, too, poured down in such torrents that we
+were all of us presently wet through. We had been, I apprehend, more
+than an hour in this situation, when the boatmen began to complain of
+cold and weariness. I saw, also, that they began to be uneasy, for they
+did not know where they were. They had no way of forming any judgment
+about their course, but by knowing the point from whence the wind blew,
+and by keeping the boat in a relative position towards it. I encouraged
+them as well as I could, though I was beginning to be uneasy myself, and
+also sick. In about a quarter of an hour they began to complain again.
+They said they could pull no longer. They acknowledged, however, that
+they were getting nearer to the shore, though on what part of it they
+could not tell. I could do nothing but bid them hope. They then began to
+reproach themselves for having come out with me. I told them I had not
+forced them, but that it was a matter of their own choice. In the midst
+of this conversation I informed them that I thought I saw either a star
+or a light straight forward. They both looked at it and pronounced it to
+be a light, and added with great joy that it must be a light in the
+Passage-house; and so we found it; for in about ten minutes afterwards
+we landed, and, on reaching the house, learnt that a servant maid had
+been accidentally talking to some other person on the stair-case, near a
+window, with a candle in her hand, and that the light had appeared to us
+from that circumstance.
+
+It was now near eleven o'clock. My messenger, it appeared, had arrived
+safe about five in the evening, and had proceeded on his route. I was
+very cold on my arrival, and sick also. There seemed to be a chilliness
+all over me, both within and without. Indeed I had not a dry thread
+about me. I took some hot brandy and water, and went to bed; but
+desired, as soon as my clothes were thoroughly dried, to be called up,
+that I might go forward. This happened at about two in the morning, when
+I got up. I took my breakfast by the fire-side. I then desired the
+post-boy, if he should meet any persons on the road, to stop and inform
+me, as I did not know whether the witnesses might not be coming up by
+themselves, and whether they might not have passed my messenger without
+knowing his errand. Having taken these precautions, I departed. I
+travelled on, but we met no one. I traced, however, my messenger through
+Newport, Cardiff, and Cowbridge. I was assured, also, that he had not
+passed me on his return; nor had any of those passed me whom he was
+seeking. At length, when I was within about two miles of Neath I met
+him. He had both the witnesses under his care. This was a matter of
+great joy to me. I determined to return with them. It was now nearly two
+in the afternoon. I accordingly went back, but we did not reach the
+Passage-house again till nearly two the next morning.
+
+During our journey, neither the wind nor the rain had much abated. It
+was quite dark on our arrival. We found only one person, and he had been
+sitting up in expectation of us. It was in vain that I asked him for a
+boat to put us across the water. He said all the boatmen were in bed;
+and, if they were up, he was sure that none of them would venture out.
+It was thought a mercy by all of them that we were not lost last night.
+Difficulties were also started about horses to take us another way.
+Unable, therefore, to proceed, we took refreshment and went to bed.
+
+We arrived at Bristol between nine and ten the next morning; but I was
+so ill that I could go no further; I had been cold and shivering ever
+since my first passage across the Severn; and I had now a violent sore
+throat and a fever with it. All I could do was to see the witnesses off
+for London, and to assign them to the care of an attorney, who should
+conduct them to the trial. For this purpose I gave them a letter to a
+friend of the name of Langdale. I saw them depart. The mother of William
+Lines accompanied them. By a letter received on Tuesday, I learnt that
+they had not arrived in town till Monday morning at three o'clock; that
+at about nine or ten they found out the office of Mr. Langdale; that, on
+inquiring for him, they heard he was in the country, but that he would
+be home at noon; that, finding he had not then arrived, they acquainted
+his clerk with the nature of their business, and opened my letter to
+show him the contents of it; that the clerk went with them to consult
+some other person on the subject, when he conveyed them to the Old
+Bailey; but that, on inquiring at the proper place about the
+introduction of the witnesses, he learnt that the chief mate had been
+brought to the bar in the morning, and, no person then appearing against
+him, that he had been discharged by proclamation. Such was the end of
+all my anxiety and labour in this affair. I was very ill when I received
+the letter; but I saw the necessity of bearing up against the
+disappointment, and I endeavoured to discharge the subject from my mind
+with the following wish, that the narrow escape which the chief mate had
+experienced, and which was entirely owing to the accidental
+circumstances now explained, might have the effect, under Providence, of
+producing in him a deep contrition for his offence, and of awakening him
+to a serious attention to his future life[A].
+
+[Footnote A: He had undoubtedly a narrow escape; for Mr. Langdale's
+clerk had learnt that he had no evidence to produce in his favour. The
+slave-merchants, it seems, had counted most upon bribing those who were
+to come against him, to disappear.]
+
+I was obliged to remain in Bristol a few days longer in consequence of
+my illness; but as soon as I was able I reached London, when I attended
+a sitting of the committee after an absence of more than five months. At
+this committee it was strongly recommended to me to publish a second
+edition of my _Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species_,
+and to insert such of the facts in it in their proper places, out of
+those collected in my late travels, as I might judge to be productive of
+an interesting effect. There appeared, also, an earnest desire in the
+committee, that, directly after this, I should begin my _Essay on the
+Impolicy of the Slave Trade_.
+
+In compliance with their wishes, I determined upon both these works; but
+I resolved to retire into the country, that, by being subject to less
+interruption there, I might the sooner finish them. It was proper,
+however, that I should settle many things in London before I took my
+departure from it; and, among these, that I should find out George
+Ormond and Patrick Murray, whom I had sent from Liverpool on account of
+the information they had given me relative to the murder of Peter Green.
+I saw no better way than to take them before Sir Sampson Wright, who was
+then at the head of the police of the metropolis. He examined and
+cross-examined them several times, and apart from each other. He then
+desired their evidence to be drawn up in the form of depositions, copies
+of which he gave to me. He had no doubt that the murder would be proved.
+The circumstances of the deceased being in good health at nine o'clock
+in the evening, and of his severe sufferings till eleven, and of the
+nature of the wounds discovered to have been made on his person, and of
+his death by one in the morning, could never, he said, be done away by
+any evidence who should state that he had been subject to other
+disorders which might have occasioned his decease. He found himself,
+therefore, compelled to apply to the magistrates of Liverpool, for the
+apprehension of three of the principal officers of the ship; but the
+answer was that the ship had sailed, and that they whose names had been
+specified were then, none of them, to be found in Liverpool.
+
+It was now for me to consider whether I would keep the two witnesses,
+Ormond and Murray, for a year, or perhaps longer, at my own expense, and
+run the hazard of the death of the officers in the interim, and of other
+calculable events. I had felt so deeply for the usage of the seamen in
+this cruel traffic, which indeed had embittered all my journey, that I
+had no less than nine prosecutions at law upon my hands on their
+account, and nineteen witnesses detained at my own cost. The committee
+in London could give me no assistance in these cases. They were the
+managers of the public purse for the abolition of the Slave Trade, and
+any expenses of this kind were neither within the limits of their
+object, nor within the pale of their duty. From the individuals
+belonging to it, I picked up a few guineas by way of private
+subscription, and this was all. But a vast load still remained upon me,
+and such as had occasioned uneasiness to my mind. I thought it,
+therefore, imprudent to detain the evidences for this purpose for so
+long a time, and I sent them back to Liverpool. I commenced, however, a
+prosecution against the captain at common law for his barbarous usage of
+them, and desired that it might be pushed on as vigorously as possible;
+and the result was, that his attorney was so alarmed, particularly after
+knowing what had been done by Sir Sampson Wright, that he entered into a
+compromise to pay all the expenses of the suit hitherto incurred, and to
+give Ormond and Murray a sum of money as damages for the injury which
+they themselves had sustained. This compromise was acceded to. The men
+received the money, and signed the release, (of which I insisted upon a
+copy,) and went to sea again in another trade, thanking me for my
+interference in their behalf. But by this copy, which I have now in my
+possession, it appears that care was taken by the captain's attorney to
+render their future evidence in the case of Peter Green almost
+impracticable; for it was there wickedly stated, "that George Ormond and
+Patrick Murray did then and there bind themselves in certain penalties
+that they would neither encourage nor support any action at law against
+the said captain, by or at the suit or prosecution of any other of the
+seamen now or late on board the said ship, and that they released the
+said captain also from all manner of actions, suits, and cause and
+causes of action, informations, prosecutions, and other proceedings
+which they then had, or ever had, or could or might have, by reason of
+the said assaults upon their own persons, or _other wrongs or injuries
+done by the said captain heretofore and to the date of this
+release_[A]."
+
+[Footnote A: None of the nine actions before mentioned ever came to a
+trial; but they were all compromised by paying sums to the injured
+parties.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+Labours of the committee during the author's journey; Quakers the
+first to notice its institution; General Baptists the
+next.--Correspondence opened with American societies for
+Abolition.--First individual who addressed the committee was Mr.
+William Smith.--Thanks voted to Ramsay.--Committee prepares lists of
+persons to whom to send its publications; Barclay, Taylor, and
+Wedgewood, elected members of the committee.--Letters from Brissot and
+others.--Granville Sharp elected chairman,--Seal ordered to be
+engraved.--Letters from different correspondents, as they offered
+their services to the committee.
+
+
+The committee, during my absence, had attended regularly at their posts;
+they had been both vigilant and industrious; they were, in short, the
+persons who had been the means of raising the public spirit which I had
+observed first at Manchester, and afterwards as I journeyed on. It will
+be proper, therefore, that I should now say something of their labours,
+and of the fruits of them: and if, in doing this, I should be more
+minute for a few pages than some would wish, I must apologize for myself
+by saying, that there are others who would be sorry to lose the
+knowledge of the particular manner in which the foundation was laid, and
+the superstructure advanced, of a work which will make so brilliant an
+appearance in our history, as that of the abolition of the Slave Trade.
+
+The committee having dispersed five hundred circular letters, giving an
+account of their institution in London and its neighbourhood, the
+Quakers were the first to notice it. This they did in their yearly
+epistle, of which the following is an extract:--"We have also thankfully
+to believe there is a growing attention in many, not of our religious
+society, to the subject of negro slavery; and that the minds of the
+people are more and more enlarged to consider it as an aggregate of
+every species of evil, and to see the utter inconsistency of upholding
+it by the authority of any nation whatever, especially of such as
+punish, with loss of life, crimes whose magnitude bears scarce any
+proportion to this complicated iniquity."
+
+The General Baptists were the next; for on the 22nd of June, Stephen
+Lowdell and Dan Taylor attended as a deputation from the annual meeting
+of that religious body, to inform the committee, that those whom they
+represented approved their proceedings, and that they would countenance
+the object of their institution.
+
+The first individual who addressed the committee was Mr. William Smith,
+the late member for Norwich. In his letter, he expressed the pleasure he
+had received in finding persons associated in the support of a cause in
+which he himself had taken a deep interest. He gave them advice as to
+their future plans. He promised them all the co-operation in his power:
+and he exhorted them not to despair, even if their first attempt should
+be unsuccessful; "for consolation," says he, "will not be wanting. You
+may rest satisfied that the attempt will be productive of some good;
+that the fervent wishes of the righteous will be on your side, and that
+the blessing of those who are ready to perish will fall upon you." And
+as Mr. Smith was the first person to address the committee as an
+individual after its formation, so, next to Mr. Wilberforce and the
+members of it, he gave the most time and attention to the promotion of
+the cause.
+
+On the 5th of July, the committee opened a correspondence, by means of
+William Dillwyn, with the societies of Philadelphia and New York, of
+whose institution an account has been given. At this sitting a due sense
+was signified of the services of Mr. Ramsay, and a desire of his
+friendly communications when convenient.
+
+The two next meetings were principally occupied in making out lists of
+the names of persons in the country, to whom the committee should send
+their publications for distribution. For this purpose, every member was
+to bring in an account of those whom he knew personally, and whom he
+believed not only to be willing, but qualified on account of their
+judgment and the weight of their character, to take an useful part in
+the work which was to be assigned to them. It is a remarkable
+circumstance, that when the lists were arranged, the committee, few as
+they were, found they had friends in no less than thirty-nine
+counties[A], in each of which there were several, so that a knowledge of
+their institution could now be soon diffusively spread.
+
+[Footnote A: The Quakers, by means of their discipline, have a greater
+personal knowledge of each other, than the members of any other
+religious society. But two-thirds of the committee were Quakers, and
+hence the circumstance is explained. Hence also nine-tenths of our first
+coadjutors were Quakers.]
+
+The committee having now fixed upon their correspondents, ordered five
+hundred of the circular letters which have been before mentioned, and
+five thousand of the _Summary View_, an account of which has been given
+also, to be printed.
+
+On account of the increase of business, which was expected in
+consequence of the circulation of the preceding publications, Robert
+Barclay, John Vickris Taylor, and Josiah Wedgewood, Esq., were added to
+the committee; and it was then resolved, that any three members might
+call a meeting when necessary.
+
+On the 27th of August, the new correspondents began to make their
+appearance. This sitting was distinguished by the receipt of letters
+from two celebrated persons. The first was from Brissot, dated Paris,
+August the 18th, who, it may be recollected, was an active member of the
+National Convention of France, and who suffered in the persecution of
+Robespierre. The second was from Mr. John Wesley, whose useful labours
+as a minister of the Gospel, are so well known to our countrymen.
+
+Brissot, in his letter, congratulated the members of the committee, on
+having come together for so laudable an object. He offered his own
+assistance towards the promotion of it. He desired, also, that his
+valuable friend Claviere (who suffered also under Robespierre) might be
+joined to him, and that both might be acknowledged by the committee, as
+associates in what he called this heavenly work. He purposed to
+translate and circulate through France such publications as they might
+send him from time to time; and to appoint bankers in Paris, who might
+receive subscriptions, and remit them to London, for the good of their
+common cause. In the mean time, if his own countrymen should be found to
+take an interest in this great cause, it was not improbable that a
+committee might be formed in Paris, to endeavour to secure the
+attainment of the same object from the government in France.
+
+The thanks of the committee were voted to Brissot for this disinterested
+offer of his services, and he was elected an honorary and corresponding
+member. In reply, however, to his letter, it was stated that, as the
+committee had no doubt of procuring from the generosity of their own
+nation sufficient funds for effecting the object of their institution,
+they declined the acceptance of any pecuniary aid from the people of
+France; but recommended him to attempt the formation of a committee in
+his own country, and to inform them of his progress, and to make to them
+such other communications as he might deem necessary upon the subject
+from time to time.
+
+Mr. Wesley, whose letter was read next, informed the committee of the
+great satisfaction which he also had experienced, when he heard of their
+formation. He conceived that their design, while it would destroy the
+Slave Trade, would also strike at the root of the shocking abomination
+of slavery also. He desired to forewarn them that they must expect
+difficulties and great opposition from those who were interested in the
+system; that these were a powerful body; and that they would raise all
+their forces, when they perceived their craft to be in danger. They
+would employ hireling writers, who would have neither justice nor mercy.
+But the committee were not to be dismayed by such treatment, nor even if
+some of those who professed goodwill towards them, should turn against
+them. As for himself, he would do all he could to promote the object of
+their institution. He would reprint a new and large edition of his
+_Thought on Slavery_, and circulate it among his friends in England and
+Ireland, to whom he would add a few words in favour of their design. And
+then he concluded in these words: "I commend you to Him who is able to
+carry you through all opposition, and support you under all
+discouragements."
+
+On the 4th, 11th, and 18th of September, the committee were employed
+variously. Among other things, they voted their thanks to Mr. Leigh, a
+clergyman of the Established Church, for the offer of his services for
+the county of Norfolk. They ordered, also, one thousand of the circular
+letters to be additionally printed.
+
+At one of these meetings a resolution was made, that Granville Sharp,
+Esq. be appointed chairman. This appointment, though now first formally
+made in the minute book, was always understood to have taken place; but
+the modesty of Mr. Sharp was such that, though repeatedly pressed, he
+would never consent to take the chair; and he generally refrained from
+coming into the room till after he knew it to be taken. Nor could he be
+prevailed upon, even after this resolution, to alter his conduct: for
+though he continued to sign the papers, which were handed to him by
+virtue of holding this office, he never was once seated as the chairman,
+during the twenty years in which he attended at these meetings. I
+thought it not improper to mention this trait in his character.
+Conscious that he engaged in the cause of his fellow-creatures, solely
+upon the sense of his duty as a Christian, he seems to have supposed
+either that he had done nothing extraordinary to merit such a
+distinction, or to have been fearful lest the acceptance of it should
+bring a stain upon the motive, on which alone he undertook it.
+
+On the 2nd and 16th of October two sittings took place; at the latter of
+which a sub-committee, which had been appointed for the purpose, brought
+in a design for a seal. An African was seen, (as in the figure[A],) in
+chains, in a supplicating posture, kneeling with one knee upon the
+ground, and with both his hands lifted up to heaven, and round the seal
+was observed the following motto, as if he was uttering the words
+himself,--"Am I not a Man and a Brother?" The design having been
+approved of, a seal was ordered to be engraved from it. I may mention
+here that this seal, simple as the design was, was made to contribute
+largely, as will be shown in its proper place, towards turning the
+attention of our countrymen to the case of the injured Africans, and of
+procuring a warm interest in their favour.
+
+[Footnote A: The figure is rather larger than that in the seal.]
+
+[Illustration: Seal]
+
+On the 30th of October several letters were read: one of these was from
+Brissot and Claviere conjointly; in this they acknowledged the
+satisfaction they had received on being considered as associates in the
+humane work of the abolition of the Slave Trade, and correspondents in
+France for the promotion of it. They declared it to be their intention
+to attempt the establishment of a committee there, on the same
+principles as that in England; but, in consequence of the different
+constitutions of the two governments, they gave the committee reason to
+suppose, that their proceedings must be different, as well as slower
+than those in England, for the same object.
+
+A second letter was read from Mr. John Wesley. He said that he had now
+read the publications which the committee had sent him, and that he
+took, if possible, a still deeper interest in their cause. He exhorted
+them to more than ordinary diligence and perseverance; to be prepared
+for opposition; to be cautious about the manner of procuring information
+and evidence, that no stain might fall upon their character; and to take
+care that the question should be argued, as well upon the consideration
+of interest as of humanity and justice, the former of which he feared
+would have more weight than the latter; and he recommended them and
+their glorious concern, as before, to the protection of Him who was able
+to support them.
+
+Letters were read from Dr. Price, approving the institution of the
+committee; from Charles Lloyd of Birmingham, stating the interest which
+the inhabitants of that town were taking in it; and from William
+Russell, Esq. of the same place, stating the same circumstance, and that
+he would co-operate with the former in calling a public meeting, and in
+doing whatever else was necessary for the promotion of so good a cause.
+A letter was read also from Manchester, signed conjointly by George
+Barton Thomas Cooper, John Ferriar, Thomas Walker, Thomas Phillips,
+Thomas Butterworth Bayley, and George Lloyd, Esqrs., promising their
+assistance from that place. Two others were read from John Kerrich,
+Esq., of Harleston, and from Joshua Grigby, Esq., of Drinkston, each
+tendering their services, one for the county Of Norfolk, and the other
+for the county of Suffolk. The latter concluded by saying, "With respect
+to myself, in no possible instance of my public conduct can I receive so
+much sincere satisfaction, as I shall, by the vote I will most assuredly
+give in parliament, in support of this most worthy effort to suppress a
+traffic, which is contrary to all the feelings of humanity, and the laws
+of our religion."
+
+A letter was read also at this sitting from Major Cartwright, of
+Marnham, in which he offered his own services, in conjunction with those
+of the Rev. John Charlesworth, of Ossington, for the county of
+Nottingham.
+
+"I congratulate you," says he, in this letter, "on the happy prospect of
+some considerable step at least being taken, towards the abolition of a
+traffic, which is not only impious in itself, but of all others tends
+most to vitiate the human mind.
+
+"Although procrastination is generally pernicious in cases depending
+upon the feelings of the heart, I should almost fear that, without very
+uncommon exertions, you will scarcely be prepared early in the next
+sessions, for bringing the business into parliament with the greatest
+advantage. But, be that as it may, let the best use be made of the
+intermediate time; and then, if there be a superintending Providence,
+which governs everything in the moral world, there is every reason to
+hope for a blessing on this particular work."
+
+The last letter was from Robert Boucher Nickolls, dean of Middleham, in
+Yorkshire. In this he stated that he was a native of the West Indies,
+and had travelled on the continent of America. He then offered some
+important information to the committee as his mite, towards the
+abolition of the Slave Trade, and as an encouragement to them to
+persevere. He attempted to prove, that the natural increase of the
+negroes already in the West Indian islands would be fully adequate to
+the cultivation of them, without any fresh supplies from Africa; and
+that such natural increase would be secured by humane treatment. With
+this view, he instanced the two estates of Mr. MacMahon and of Dr. Mapp,
+in the island of Barbados. The first required continual supplies of new
+slaves, in consequence of the severe and cruel usage adopted upon it.
+The latter overflowed with labourers in consequence of a system of
+kindness, so that it almost peopled another estate. Having related these
+instances, he cited others in North America, where, though the climate
+was less favourable to the constitution of the Africans, but their
+treatment better, they increased also. He combated, from his own
+personal knowledge, the argument, that self-interest was always
+sufficient to insure good usage, and maintained that there was only one
+way of securing it, which was the entire abolition of the Slave Trade.
+He showed in what manner the latter measure would operate to the desired
+end: he then dilated on the injustice and inconsistency of this trade,
+and supported the policy of the abolition of it, both to the planter,
+the merchant, and the nation.
+
+This letter of the Dean of Middleham, which was a little Essay of
+itself, was deemed of so much importance by the committee, but
+particularly as it was the result of local knowledge, that they not only
+passed a resolution of thanks to him for it, but desired his permission
+to print it.
+
+The committee sat again on the 13th and 22nd of November. At the first
+of these sittings, a letter was read from Henry Grimston, Esq., of
+Whitwell Hall, near York, offering his services for the promotion of the
+cause in his own county. At the second, the Dean of Middleham's answer
+was received. He acquiesced in the request of the committee; when five
+thousand of his letters were ordered immediately to be printed.
+
+On the 22nd a letter was read from Mr. James Mackenzie, of the town of
+Cambridge, desiring to forward the object of the institution there. Two
+letters were read also, one from the late Mr. Jones, tutor of Trinity
+College, and the other from Mr. William Frend, fellow of Jesus College.
+It appeared from these, that the gentlemen of the University of
+Cambridge were beginning to take a lively interest in the abolition of
+the Slave Trade, among whom Dr. Watson, the bishop of Llandaff, was
+particularly conspicuous. At this committee two thousand new _Summary
+View_ were ordered to be printed, and the circular letter to be prefixed
+to each.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+Labours of the committee continued to February, 1788.--Committee elect
+new members; vote thanks to Falconbridge and others; receive letters
+from Grove and others; circulate numerous publications; make a report;
+send circular letters to corporate bodies; release negroes unjustly
+detained; find new correspondents in Archdeacon Paley, the Marquis de
+la Fayette, Bishop of Cloyne, Bishop of Peterborough, and in many
+others.
+
+
+The labours of the committee, during my absence, were as I have now
+explained them; but as I was obliged, almost immediately, on joining
+them, to retire into the country to begin my new work, I must give an
+account of their further services till I joined them again, or till the
+middle of February, 1788.
+
+During sittings which were held from the middle of December, 1787, to
+the 18th of January, 1788, the business of the committee had so
+increased, that it was found proper to make an addition to their number.
+Accordingly James Martin and William Morton Pitt, Esquires, members of
+parliament, and Robert Hunter, and Joseph Smith, Esquires, were chosen
+members of it.
+
+The knowledge also of the institution of the society had spread to such
+an extent, and the eagerness among individuals to see the publications
+of the committee had been so great, that the press was kept almost
+constantly going during the time now mentioned. No fewer than three
+thousand lists of the subscribers, with a circular letter prefixed to
+them, explaining the object of the institution, were ordered to be
+printed within this period, to which are to be added fifteen hundred of
+BENEZET'S _Account of Guinea_, three thousand of the DEAN of MIDDLEHAM'S
+_Letters_, five thousand _Summary View,_ and two thousand of a new
+edition of the _Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species_, which I had
+enlarged before the last of these sittings from materials collected in
+my late tour.
+
+The thanks of the committee were voted during this period to Mr.
+Alexander Falconbridge, for the assistance he had given me in my
+inquiries into the nature of the Slave Trade.
+
+As Mr. Falconbridge had but lately returned from Africa, and as facts
+and circumstances, which had taken place but a little time ago, were
+less liable to objections (inasmuch as they proved the present state of
+things) than those which happened in earlier times, he was prevailed
+upon to write an account of what he had seen during the four voyages he
+had made to that continent; and accordingly, within the period which has
+been mentioned, he began his work.
+
+The committee, during these sittings, kept up a correspondence with
+those gentlemen who were mentioned in the last chapter to have addressed
+them. But, besides these, they found other voluntary correspondents in
+the following persons, Capell Lofft, Esq., of Troston, and the Reverend
+B. Brome, of Ipswich, both in the county of Suffolk. These made an
+earnest tender of their services for those parts of the county in which
+they resided. Similar offers were made by Mr. Hammond, of Stanton, near
+St. Ives, in the county of Huntingdon, by Thomas Parker, Esq., of
+Beverly, and by William Grove, Esq., of Litchfield, for their respective
+towns and neighbourhoods.
+
+A letter was received also within this period from the society
+established at Philadelphia, accompanied with documents in proof of the
+good effects of the manumission of slaves, and with specimens of writing
+and drawing by the same. In this letter the society congratulated the
+committee in London on its formation, and professed its readiness to
+co-operate in any way in which it could me made useful.
+
+During these sittings, a letter was also read from Dr. Bathurst,
+afterwards bishop of Norwich, dated Oxford, December 17th, in which he
+offered his services in the promotion of the cause.
+
+Another was read, which stated that Dr. Home, president of Magdalen
+College in the same university, and afterwards bishop of the same see as
+the former, highly favoured it.
+
+Another was read from Mr. Lambert, fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge,
+in which he signified to the committee the great desire he had to
+promote the object of their institution. He had drawn up a number of
+queries relative to the state of the unhappy slaves in the islands,
+which he had transmitted to a friend, who had resided in them, to
+answer. These answers he purposed to forward to the committee on their
+arrival.
+
+Another was read from Dr. Hinchliffe, bishop of Peterborough, in which
+he testified his hearty approbation of the institution, and of the
+design of it, and his determination to support the object of it in
+parliament. He gave in at the same time a plan, which he called
+_Thoughts on the Means of Abolishing the Slave Trade in Great Britain
+and in our West Indian Islands_, for the consideration of the committee.
+
+At the last of these sittings, the committee thought it right to make a
+report to the public relative to the state and progress of their cause;
+but as this was composed from materials which the reader has now in his
+possession, it may not be necessary to produce it.
+
+On the 22nd and 29th of January, and on the 5th and 12th of February,
+1788, sittings were also held. During these, the business still
+increasing, John Maitland, Esq., was elected a member of the committee.
+
+As the correspondents of the committee were now numerous, and as these
+solicited publications for the use of those who applied to them, as well
+as of those to whom they wished to give a knowledge of the subject, the
+press was kept in constant employ during this period also. Five thousand
+two hundred and fifty additional _Reports_ were ordered to be printed,
+and also three thousand of FALCONBRIDGE'S _Account of the Slave Trade_,
+the manuscript of which was now finished. At this time, Mr. Newton,
+rector of St. Mary Woolnoth in London, who had been in his youth to the
+coast of Africa, but who had now become a serious and useful divine,
+felt it his duty to write his _Thoughts on the African Slave Trade_. The
+committee, having obtained permission, printed three thousand copies of
+these also.
+
+During these sittings, the chairman was requested to have frequent
+communication with Dr. Porteus, bishop of London, as he had expressed
+his desire of becoming useful to the institution.
+
+A circular letter also, with the report before mentioned, was ordered to
+be sent to the majors of several corporate towns.
+
+A case also occurred, which it may not be improper to notice. The
+treasurer reported that he had been informed by the chairman, that the
+captain of the Albion, merchant ship, trading to the Bay of Honduras,
+had picked up at sea, from a Spanish ship, which had been wrecked, two
+black men, one named Henry Martin Burrowes, a free native of Antigua,
+who had served in the royal navy, and the other named Antonio Berrat, a
+Spanish negro; that the said captain detained these men on board his
+ship, then lying in the river Thames, against their will; and that, he
+would not give them up. Upon this report, it was resolved that the cause
+of these unfortunate captives should be espoused by the committee. Mr.
+Sharp accordingly caused a writ of habeas-corpus to be served upon them;
+soon after which he had the satisfaction of reporting, that they had
+been delivered from the place of their confinement.
+
+During these sittings the following letters were read also:
+
+One from Richard How, of Apsley, offering his services to the committee.
+
+Another from the Reverend Christopher Wyvill, of Burton Hall, in
+Yorkshire, to the same effect.
+
+Another from Archdeacon Plymley, (afterwards Corbett,) in which he
+expressed the deep interest he took in this cause of humanity and
+freedom, and the desire he had of making himself useful as far as he
+could towards the support of it; and he wished to know, as the Clergy of
+the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry were anxious to espouse it also,
+whether a petition to parliament from them, as a part of the Established
+Church, would not be desirable at the present season.
+
+Another from Archdeacon Paley, containing his sentiments on a plan for
+the abolition of the Slave Trade, and the manumission of slaves in our
+islands, and offering his future services, and wishing success to the
+undertaking.
+
+Another from Dr. Sharp, prebendary of Durham, inquiring into the
+probable amount of the subscriptions which might be wanted, and for what
+purposes, with a view of serving the cause.
+
+Another from Dr. Woodward, bishop of Cloyne, in which he approved of the
+institution of the committee. He conceived the Slave Trade to be no less
+disgraceful to the legislature and injurious to the true commercial
+interests of the country, than it was productive of unmerited misery to
+the unhappy objects of it, and repugnant both to the principles and the
+spirit of the Christian religion. He wished to be placed among the
+assertors of the liberty of his fellow-creatures, and he was therefore
+desirous of subscribing largely, as well as of doing all he could, both
+in England and Ireland, for the promotion of such a charitable work.
+
+A communication was made, soon after the reading of the last letter,
+through the medium of the Chevalier de Ternant, from the celebrated
+Marquis de la Fayette of France. The Marquis signified the singular
+pleasure he had received on hearing of the formation of a committee in
+England for the abolition of the Slave Trade, and the earnest desire he
+had to promote the object of it. With this view, he informed the
+committee that he should attempt the formation of a similar society in
+France. This he conceived to be one of the most effectual measures he
+could devise for securing the object in question; for he was of opinion,
+that if the two great nations of France and England were to unite in
+this humane and Christian work, the other European nations might be
+induced to follow the example.
+
+The committee, on receiving the two latter communications, resolved,
+that the chairman should return their thanks to the Bishop of Cloyne,
+and the Marquis de la Fayette, and the Chevalier de Ternant, and that he
+should inform them, that they were enrolled among the honorary and
+corresponding members of the society.
+
+The other letters read during these sittings were to convey information
+to the committee, that people in various parts of the kingdom had then
+felt themselves so deeply interested in behalf of the injured Africans,
+that they had determined either on public meetings, or had come to
+resolutions, or had it in contemplation to petition parliament, for the
+abolition of the Slave Trade. Information was signified to this effect
+by Thomas Walker, Esquire, for Manchester; by John Hoyland, William
+Hoyles, Esquire, and the Reverend James Wilkinson, for Sheffield; by
+William Tuke, and William Burgh, Esquire, for York; by the Reverend Mr.
+Foster, for Colchester; by Joseph Harford and Edmund Griffith, Esquires,
+for Bristol; by William Bishop, Esquire, the mayor, for Maidstone; by
+the Reverend R. Brome and the Reverend J. Wright, for Ipswich; by James
+Clarke, Esquire, the mayor, for Coventry; by Mr. Jones, of Trinity
+College, for the University of Cambridge; by Dr. Schomberg, of Magdalen
+College, for the University of Oxford; by Henry Bullen, Esquire, for
+Bury St. Edmunds; by Archdeacon Travis, for Chester; by Mr. Hammond, for
+the county of Huntingdon; by John Flint, Esquire, (afterwards Corbett,)
+for the town of Shrewsbury and county of Salop; by the Reverend Robert
+Lucas, for the town and also for the county of Northampton; by Mr.
+Winchester, for the county of Stafford; by the Reverend William Leigh,
+for the county of Norfolk; by David Barclay, for the county of Hertford;
+and by Thomas Babington, Esquire, for the county of Leicester.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+Further progress to the middle of May.--Petitions begin to be sent to
+parliament.--The king orders the privy council to inquire into the
+Slave Trade.--Author called up to town; his interviews with Mr. Pitt,
+and with Mr.(afterwards Lord) Grenville.--Liverpool delegates examined
+first; these prejudice the council; this prejudice at length
+counteracted.--Labours of the committee in the interim.--Public
+anxious for the introduction of the question into parliament.--Message
+of Mr. Pitt to the committee concerning it.--Day fixed for the
+motion.--Substance of the debate which followed.--Discussion of the
+general question deferred till the next sessions.
+
+
+By this time the nature of the Slave Trade had, in consequence of the
+labours of the committee and of their several correspondents, become
+generally known throughout the kingdom. It had excited a general
+attention, and there was among the people a general feeling in behalf of
+the wrongs of Africa. This feeling had also, as may be collected from
+what has been already mentioned, broken out into language: for not only
+had the traffic become the general subject of conversation, but public
+meetings had taken place, in which it had been discussed, and of which
+the result was, that an application to parliament had been resolved upon
+in many places concerning it. By the middle of February not fewer than
+thirty-five petitions had been delivered to the Commons, and it was
+known that others were on their way to the same house.
+
+This ferment in the public mind, which had shown itself in the public
+prints even before the petitions had been resolved upon, had excited the
+attention of government. To coincide with the wishes of the people on
+this subject, appeared to those in authority to be a desirable thing. To
+abolish the trade, replete as it was with misery, was desirable also;
+but it was so connected with the interest of individuals, and so
+interwoven with the commerce and revenue of the country, that a hasty
+abolition of it without a previous inquiry appeared to them to be likely
+to be productive of as much misery as good. The king, therefore, by an
+order of council dated February the eleventh, 1788, directed that a
+committee of Privy Council should sit as a board of trade, "to take into
+their consideration the present state of the African Trade, particularly
+as far as related to the practice and manner of purchasing or obtaining
+slaves on the coast of Africa, and the importation and sale thereof,
+either in the British colonies and settlements, or in the foreign
+colonies and settlements in America or the West-Indies; and also as far
+as related to the effects and consequences of the trade both in Africa
+and in the said colonies and settlements, and to the general commerce of
+this kingdom; and that they should report to him in council the result
+of their inquiries, with such observations as they might have to offer
+thereupon."
+
+Of this order of council Mr. Wilberforce, who had attended to this great
+subject, as far as his health would permit, since I left him, had
+received notice; but he was then too ill himself to take any measures
+concerning it. He therefore wrote to me, and begged of me to repair to
+London immediately, in order to get such evidence ready as we might
+think it eligible to introduce when the council sat. At that time, as
+appears from the former chapter, I had finished the additions to my
+_Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species_, and I had now
+proceeded about half way in that of the Impolicy of it. This summons,
+however, I obeyed, and returned to town on the fourteenth of February,
+from which day to the twenty-fourth of May I shall now give the history
+of our proceedings.
+
+My first business in London was to hold a conversation with Mr. Pitt
+previously to the meeting of the council, and to try to interest him, as
+the first minister of state, in our favour. For this purpose Mr.
+Wilberforce had opened the way for me, and an interview took place. We
+were in free conversation together for a considerable time, during which
+we went through most of the branches of the subject. Mr. Pitt appeared
+to me to have but little knowledge of it. He had also his doubts, which
+he expressed openly, on many points. He was at a loss to conceive how
+private interest should not always restrain the master of the slave from
+abusing him. This matter I explained to him as well as I could; and if
+he was not entirely satisfied with my interpretation of it, he was at
+least induced to believe that cruel practices were more probable than he
+had imagined. A second circumstance, of the truth of which he doubted,
+was the mortality and usage of seamen in this trade; and a third was the
+statement by which so much had been made of the riches of Africa, and of
+the genius and abilities of her people; for he seemed at a loss to
+comprehend, if these things were so, how it happened that they should
+not have been more generally noticed before. I promised to satisfy him
+upon these points, and an interview was fixed for this purpose the next
+day.
+
+At the time appointed, I went with my books, papers, and African
+productions. Mr. Pitt examined the former himself. He turned over leaf
+after leaf, in which the copies of the muster-rolls were contained, with
+great patience; and when he had looked over above a hundred pages
+accurately, and found the name of every seaman inserted, his former
+abode or service, the time of his entry, and what had become of him,
+either by death, discharge, or desertion, he expressed his surprise at
+the great pains which had been taken in this branch of the inquiry; and
+confessed, with some emotion, that his doubts were wholly removed with
+respect to the destructive nature of this employ; and he said, moreover,
+that the facts contained in these documents, if they had been but fairly
+copied, could never be disproved. He was equally astonished at the
+various woods and other productions of Africa, but most of all at the
+manufactures of the natives in cotton, leather, gold, and iron, which
+were laid before him. These he handled and examined over and over again.
+Many sublime thoughts seemed to rush in upon him at once at the sight of
+these, some of which he expressed with observations becoming a great and
+a dignified mind. He thanked me for the light I had given him on many of
+the branches of this great question. And I went away under a certain
+conviction that I had left him much impressed in our favour.
+
+My next visit was to Mr. (afterwards Lord) Grenville. I called upon him
+at the request of Mr. Wilberforce, who had previously written to him
+from Bath, as he had promised to attend the meetings of the privy
+council during the examinations which were to take place. I found, in
+the course of our conversation, that Mr. Grenville had not then more
+knowledge of the subject than Mr. Pitt; but I found him differently
+circumstanced in other respects, for I perceived in him a warm feeling
+in behalf of the injured Africans, and that he had no doubt of the
+possibility of all the barbarities which had been alleged against this
+traffic. I showed him all my papers and some of my natural productions,
+which he examined. I was with him the next day, and once again
+afterwards, so that the subject was considered in all its parts. The
+effect of this interview with him was of course different from that upon
+the minister. In the former case I had removed doubts, and given birth
+to an interest in favour of our cause. But I had here only increased an
+interest, which had already been excited, I had only enlarged the mass
+of feeling, or added zeal to zeal, or confirmed resolutions and
+reasonings. Disposed in this manner originally himself, and strengthened
+by the documents with which I had furnished him, Mr. Grenville
+contracted an enmity to the Slave Trade, which was never afterwards
+diminished[A].
+
+[Footnote A: I have not mentioned the difference between these two
+eminent persons, with a view of drawing any invidious comparisons, but
+because, as these statements are true, such persons as have a high
+opinion of the late Mr. Pitt's judgment, may see that this great man did
+not espouse the cause hastily, or merely as a matter of feeling, but
+upon the conviction of his own mind.]
+
+A report having gone abroad that the committee of privy council would
+only examine those who were interested in the continuance of the trade,
+I found it necessary to call upon Mr. Pitt again, and to inform him of
+it, when I received an assurance that every person whom I chose to send
+to the council in behalf of the committee should be heard. This gave
+rise to a conversation relative to those witnesses whom we had to
+produce on the side of the abolition. And here I was obliged to disclose
+our weakness in this respect. I owned with sorrow that, though I had
+obtained specimens and official documents in abundance to prove many
+important points, yet I had found it difficult to prevail upon persons
+to be publicly examined on this subject. The only persons we could then
+count upon, were Mr. Ramsay, Mr. H. Gandy, Mr. Falconbridge, Mr. Newton,
+and the Dean of Middleham. There was one, however, who would be a host
+of himself, if we could but gain him. I then mentioned Mr. Norris. I
+told Mr. Pitt the nature[A] and value of the testimony which he had
+given me at Liverpool, and the great zeal he had discovered to serve the
+cause. I doubted, however, if he would come to London for this purpose,
+even if I wrote to him; for he was intimate with almost all the owners
+of slave-vessels in Liverpool, and, living among these, he would not
+like to incur their resentment by taking a prominent part against them.
+I therefore entreated Mr. Pitt to send him a summons of council to
+attend, hoping that Mr. Norris would then be pleased to come up, as he
+would be enabled to reply to his friends that his appearance had not
+been voluntary. Mr. Pitt, however, informed me, that a summons from a
+committee of privy council, sitting as a board, was not binding upon the
+subject; and therefore that I had no other means left, but of writing to
+him, and he desired me to do this by the first post.
+
+[Footnote A: See his evidence, Chap. XVII.]
+
+This letter I accordingly wrote, and sent it to my friend William
+Rathbone, who was to deliver it in person, and to use his own influence
+at the same time; but I received for answer, that Mr. Norris was then in
+London. Upon this I tried to find him out, to entreat him to consent to
+an examination before the council. At length I found his address; but
+before I could see him, I was told by the Bishop of London that he had
+come up as a Liverpool delegate in support of the Slave Trade.
+Astonished at this information, I made the bishop acquainted with the
+case, and asked him how it became me to act; for I was fearful lest, by
+exposing Mr. Norris, I should violate the rights of hospitality on the
+one hand, and by not exposing him that I should not do my duty to the
+cause I had undertaken on the other. His advice was, that I should see
+him, and ask him to explain the reasons of his conduct. I called upon
+him for this purpose, but he was out. He sent me, however, a letter soon
+afterwards, which was full of flattery; and in which, after having paid
+high compliments to the general force of my arguments, and the general
+justice and humanity of my sentiments on this great question, which had
+made a deep impression upon his mind, he had found occasion to differ
+from me, since we had last parted, on particular points, and that he had
+therefore less reluctantly yielded to the call of becoming a
+delegate,--though notwithstanding he would gladly have declined the
+office if he could have done it with propriety.
+
+At length the council began their examinations. Mr. Norris, Lieutenant
+Matthews, of the navy, who had just left a slave employ in Africa, and
+Mr. James Penny, formerly a slave captain, and then interested as a
+merchant in the trade, (which three were the delegates from Liverpool,)
+took possession of the ground first. Mr. Miles, Mr. Weuves, and others,
+followed them on the same side. The evidence which they gave, as
+previously concerted between themselves, may be shortly represented
+thus:--They denied that kidnapping either did or could take place in
+Africa, or that wars were made there for the purpose of procuring
+slaves. Having done away these wicked practices from their system, they
+maintained positions which were less exceptionable, as that the natives
+of Africa generally became slaves in consequence of having been made
+prisoners in just wars, or in consequence of their various crimes. They
+then gave a melancholy picture of the despotism and barbarity of some of
+the African princes, among whom the custom of sacrificing their own
+subjects prevailed. But, of all others, that which was afforded by Mr.
+Norris on this ground was the most frightful. The King of Dahomey, he
+said, sported with the lives of his people in the most wanton manner. He
+had seen at the gates of his palace two piles of heads, like those of
+shot in an arsenal. Within the palace, the heads of persons, newly put
+to death, were strewed at the distance of a few yards in the passage,
+which led to his apartment. This custom of human sacrifice by the King
+of Dahomey was not on one occasion only, but on many; such as on the
+reception of messengers from neighbouring states, or of white merchants,
+or on days of ceremonial. But the great carnage was once a year, when
+the poll-tax was paid by his subjects. A thousand persons, at least,
+were sacrificed annually on these different occasions. The great men,
+too, of the country, cut off a few heads on festival-days. From all
+these particulars the humanity of the Slave Trade was inferred, because
+it took away the inhabitants of Africa into lands where no such
+barbarities were known. But the humanity of it was insisted upon by
+positive circumstances also; namely, that a great number of the slaves
+were prisoners of war, and that in former times all such were put to
+death, whereas now they were saved: so that there was a great accession
+of happiness to Africa since the introduction of the trade.
+
+These statements, and those of others on the same side of the question,
+had a great effect, as may easily be conceived, upon the feelings of
+those of the council who were present. Some of them began immediately to
+be prejudiced against us. There were others who even thought that it was
+almost unnecessary to proceed in the inquiry, for that the trade was
+actually a blessing. They had little doubt that all our assertions
+concerning it would be found false. The Bishop of London himself was so
+impressed by these unexpected accounts, that he asked me if
+Falconbridge, whose pamphlet had been previously sent by the committee
+to every member of the council, was worthy of belief, and if he would
+substantiate publicly what he had thus written: but these impressions
+unfortunately were not confined to those who had been present at the
+examinations. These could not help communicating them to others. Hence,
+in all the higher circles (some of which I sometimes used to frequent) I
+had the mortification to hear of nothing but the Liverpool evidence, and
+of our own credulity, and of the impositions which had been practised
+upon us: of these reports the planters and merchants did not fail to
+avail themselves. They boasted that they would soon do away all the idle
+tales which had been invented against them. They desired the public only
+to suspend their judgment till the privy council report should be out,
+when they would see the folly and wickedness of all our allegations. A
+little more evidence, and all would be over. On the 22nd of March,
+though the committee council had not then held its sittings more than a
+month, and these only twice or thrice a week, the following paragraph
+was seen in a morning paper:--"The report of the committee of privy
+council will be ready in a few days. After due examination it appears
+that the major part of the complaints against this trade are
+ill-founded. Some regulations, however, are expected to take place,
+which may serve in a certain degree to appease the cause of humanity."
+
+But while they, who were interested, had produced this outcry against
+us, in consequence of what had fallen from their own witnesses in the
+course of their examinations, they had increased it considerably by the
+industrious circulation of a most artful pamphlet among persons of rank
+and fortune at the west end of the metropolis, which was called,
+_Scriptural Researches on the Licitness of the Slave Trade_. This they
+had procured to be written by R. Harris, who was then clerk in a
+slave-house in Liverpool, but had been formerly a clergyman and a
+Jesuit. As they had maintained in the first instance, as has been
+already shown, the humanity of the traffic, so, by means of this
+pamphlet they asserted its consistency with revealed religion. That such
+a book should have made converts in such an age is surprising; and yet
+many, who ought to have known better, were carried away by it; and we
+had now absolutely to contend, and almost degrade ourselves by doing so,
+against the double argument of the humanity and the holiness of the
+trade.
+
+By these means, but particularly by the former, the current of opinion
+in particular circles ran against us for the first month, and so strong,
+that it was impossible for us to stem it at once; but as some of the
+council recovered from their panic, and their good sense became less
+biassed by their feelings, and they were in a state to hear reason,
+their prejudices began to subside. It began now to be understood among
+them, that almost all the witnesses were concerned in the continuance of
+the trade. It began to be known also, (for Mr. Pitt and the Bishop of
+London took care that it should be circulated,) that Mr. Norris had but
+a short time before furnished me at Liverpool with information, all of
+which he had concealed[A] from the council, but all of which made for
+the abolition of it. Mr. Devaynes also, a respectable member of
+parliament, who had been in Africa, and who had been appealed to by Mr.
+Norris, when examined before the privy council, in behalf of his
+extraordinary facts, was unable, when summoned, to confirm them to the
+desired extent. From this evidence the council collected, that human
+sacrifices were not made on the arrival of White traders, as had been
+asserted; that there was no poll-tax in Dahomey at all; and that Mr.
+Norris must have been mistaken on these points, for he must have been
+there at the time of the ceremony of watering the graves, when about
+sixty persons suffered. This latter custom moreover appeared to have
+been a religious superstition of the country, such as at Otaheite, or in
+Britain in the time of the Druids, and to have had nothing to do with
+the Slave Trade[B]. With respect to prisoners of war, Mr. Devaynes
+allowed that the old, the lame, and the wounded, were often put to death
+on the spot; but this was to save the trouble of bringing them away. The
+young and the healthy were driven off for sale; but if they were not
+sold when offered, they were not killed, but reserved for another
+market, or became house-slaves to the conquerors. Mr. Devaynes also
+maintained, contrary to the allegations of the others, that a great
+number of persons were kidnapped in order to be sold to the ships; and
+that the government, where this happened, was not strong enough to
+prevent it. But besides these drawbacks from the weight of the testimony
+which had been given, it began to be perceived by some of the lords of
+the council, that the cruel superstitions which had been described,
+obtained only in one or two countries in Africa, and these of
+insignificant extent; whereas at the time, when their minds were carried
+away, as it were by their feelings, they had supposed them to attach to
+the whole of that vast continent. They perceived also, that there were
+circumstances related in the evidence by the delegates themselves, by
+means of which, if they were true, the inhumanity of the trade might be
+established, and this to their own disgrace. They had all confessed that
+such slaves, as the White traders refused to buy, were put to death; and
+yet that these traders, knowing that this would be the case, had the
+barbarity uniformly to reject those whom it did not suit them to
+purchase. Mr. Matthews had rejected one of this description himself,
+whom he saw afterwards destroyed. Mr. Penny had known the refuse thrown
+down Melimba rock. Mr. Norris himself, when certain prisoners of war
+were offered to him for sale, declined buying them because they appeared
+unhealthy; and though the king then told him that he would put them to
+death, he could not be prevailed upon to take them but left them to
+their hard fate; and he had the boldness to state afterwards, that it
+was his belief that many of them actually suffered.
+
+[Footnote A: This was also the case with another witness, Mr. Weuves. He
+had given me accounts, before any stir was made about the Slave Trade,
+relative to it, all of which he kept back when he was examined there.]
+
+[Footnote B: Being a religion custom, it would still have gone on,
+though the Slave Trade had been abolished: nor could the merchants at
+any time have bought off a single victim.]
+
+These considerations had the effect of diminishing the prejudices of
+some of the council on this great question: and when this was perceived
+to be the case, it was the opinion of Mr. Pitt, Mr. Grenville, and the
+Bishop of London, that we should send three or four of our own evidences
+for examination, who might help to restore matters to an equilibrium.
+Accordingly, Mr. Falconbridge, and some others, all of whom were to
+speak to the African part of the subject, were introduced. These
+produced a certain weight in the opposite scale. But soon after these
+had been examined, Dr. Andrew Spaarman, professor of physic, and
+inspector of the museum of the royal academy at Stockholm, and his
+companion, C.B. Wadstrom, chief director of the assay-office there,
+arrived in England. These gentlemen had been lately sent to Africa by
+the late king of Sweden, to make discoveries in botany, mineralogy, and
+other departments of science. For this purpose the Swedish ambassador at
+Paris had procured them permission from the French government to visit
+the countries bordering on the Senegal, and had insured them protection
+there. They had been conveyed to the place of their destination, where
+they had remained from August 1787, to the end of January 1788; but
+meeting with obstacles which they had not foreseen, they had left it,
+and had returned to Havre de Grace, from whence they had just arrived in
+London, on their way home. It so happened, that by means of George
+Harrison, one of our committee, I fell in unexpectedly with these
+gentlemen. I had not long been with them, before I perceived the great
+treasure I had found. They gave me many beautiful specimens of African
+produce. They showed me their journals, which they had regularly kept
+from day to day. In these I had the pleasure of seeing a number of
+circumstances minuted down, all relating to the Slave Trade, and even
+drawings on the same subject. I obtained a more accurate and
+satisfactory knowledge of the manners and customs of the Africans from
+these, than from all the persons put together whom I had yet seen. I was
+anxious, therefore, to take them before the committee of council, to
+which they were pleased to consent; and as Dr. Spaarman was to leave
+London in a few days, I procured him an introduction first. His evidence
+went to show, that the natives of Africa lived in a fruitful and
+luxuriant country, which supplied all their wants, and that they would
+be a happy people, if it were not for the existence of the Slave Trade.
+He instanced wars which he knew to have been made by the Moors upon the
+Negroes, (for they were entered upon wholly at the instigation of the
+White traders,) for the purpose of getting slaves, and he had the pain
+of seeing the unhappy captives brought in on such occasions, and some of
+them in a wounded state. Among them, were many women and children, and
+the women were in great affliction. He saw also the king of Barbesin
+send out his parties on expeditions of a similar kind, and he saw them
+return with slaves. The king had been made intoxicated on purpose, by
+the French agents, or he would never have consented to the measure. He
+stated also, that in consequence of the temptations held out by
+slave-vessels coming upon the coast, the natives seized one another in
+the night, when they found opportunity; and even invited others to their
+houses, whom they treacherously detained, and sold at these times; so
+that every enormity was practised in Africa, in consequence of the
+existence of the trade. These specific instances made a proper
+impression upon the lords of the council in their turn; for Dr. Spaarman
+was a man of high character; he possessed the confidence of his
+sovereign; he had no interest whatever in giving his evidence on this
+subject, either on one or the other side; his means of information too
+had been large; he had also recorded the facts which had come before
+him, and he had his journal, written in the French language, to produce.
+The tide, therefore, which had run so strongly against us, began now to
+turn a little in our favour.
+
+While these examinations were going on, petitions continued to be sent
+to the House of Commons, from various parts of the kingdom. No less than
+one hundred and three were presented in this session. The city of
+London, though she was drawn the other way by the cries of commercial
+interest, made a sacrifice to humanity and justice: the two universities
+applauded her conduct by their own example. Large manufacturing towns,
+and whole counties, expressed their sentiments and wishes in a similar
+manner. The Established Church in separate dioceses, and the Quakers and
+other dissenters, as separate religious bodies, joined in one voice upon
+this occasion.
+
+The committee, in the interim, were not unmindful of the great work they
+had undertaken, and they continued to forward it in its different
+departments. They kept up a communication by letter with most of the
+worthy persons, who have been mentioned to have written to them, but
+particularly with Brissot and Claviere; from whom they had the
+satisfaction of learning, that a society had at length been established
+at Paris, for the abolition of the Slave Trade in France. The learned
+Marquis de Condorcet had become the president of it. The virtuous Duc de
+la Rochefoucauld and the Marquis de la Fayette had sanctioned it by
+enrolling their names as the two first members. Petion, who was placed
+afterwards among the mayors of Paris, followed. Women also were not
+thought unworthy of being honorary and assistant members of this humane
+institution; and among these were found the amiable Marchioness of la
+Fayette, Madame de Poivre, widow of the late intendant of the Isle of
+France, and Madame Necker, wife of the first minister of state.
+
+The new correspondents, who voluntarily offered their services to the
+committee, during the first part of the period now under consideration,
+were S. Whitcomb, Esq., of Gloucester; the Rev. D. Watson, of Middleton
+Tyas, Yorkshire; John Murlin, Esq., of High Wycomb; Charles Collins,
+Esq., of Swansea; Henry Tudor, Esq., of Sheffield; the Rev. John Hare,
+of Lincoln; Samuel Tooker, Esq., of Moorgate, near Rotherham; the Rev.
+G. Walker, and Francis Wakefield, Esq., of Nottingham; the Rev. Mr.
+Hepworth, of Burton-upon-Trent; the Rev. H. Dannett, of St. John's,
+Liverpool; the Rev. Dr. Oglander, of New College, Oxford; the Rev. H.
+Coulthurst, of Sidney College, Cambridge; R. Selfe, Esq., of
+Cirencester; Morris Birkbeck, of Hanford, Dorsetshire; William Jepson,
+of Lancaster; B. Kaye, of Leeds: John Patison, Esq., of Paisley; J.E.
+Dolben, Esq., of Northamptonshire; the Rev. Mr. Smith, of Wendover; John
+Wilkinson, Esq., of Woodford; Samuel Milford, Esq., of Exeter; Peter
+Lunel, Esq., treasurer of the committee at Bristol; James Pemberton, of
+Philadelphia; and the president of the Society at New York.
+
+The letters from new correspondents during the latter part of this
+period, were the following:--
+
+One from Alexander Alison, Esq., of Edinburgh, in which he expressed it
+to be his duty to attempt to awaken the inhabitants of Scotland to a
+knowledge of the monstrous evil of the Slave Trade, and to form a
+committee there, to act in union with that of London, in carrying the
+great object of their institution into effect.
+
+Another from Elhanan Winchester, offering the committee one hundred of
+his sermons, which he had preached against the Slave Trade, in Fairfax
+county, in Virginia, so early as in the year 1774.
+
+Another from Dr. Frossard, of Lyons, in which he offered his services
+for the South of France, and desired different publications to be sent
+him, that he might be better qualified to take a part in the promotion
+of the cause.
+
+Another from Professor Bruns, of Helmstadt, in Germany, in which he
+desired to know the particulars relative to the institution of the
+committee, as many thousands upon the continent were then beginning to
+feel for the sufferings of the oppressed African race.
+
+Another from Rev. James Manning, of Exeter, in which he stated himself
+to be authorized by the dissenting ministers of Devon and Cornwall, to
+express their high approbation of the conduct of the committee, and to
+offer their services in the promotion of this great work of humanity and
+religion.
+
+Another from William Senhouse, Esq., of the island of Barbados. In this
+he gave the particulars of two estates, one of them his own, and the
+other belonging to a nobleman, upon each of which the slaves, in
+consequence of humane treatment, had increased by natural population
+only. Another effect of this humane treatment had been, that these
+slaves were among the most orderly and tractable in that island. From
+these and other instances he argued, that if the planters would, all of
+them, take proper care of their slaves, their humanity would be repaid
+in a few years, by a valuable increase in their property, and they would
+never want supplies from a traffic, which had been so justly condemned.
+
+Two others, the one from Travers Hartley, and the other from Alexander
+Jaffray, Esqrs., both of Dublin, were read. These gentlemen sent certain
+resolutions, which had been agreed upon by the chamber of commerce and
+by the guild of merchants there, relative to the abolition of the Slave
+Trade. They rejoiced, in the name of those whom they represented, that
+Ireland had been unspotted by a traffic, which they held in such deep
+abhorrence; and promised, if it should be abolished in England, to take
+the post active measures to prevent it from finding an asylum in the
+ports of that kingdom.
+
+The letters of William Senhouse, and of Travers Hartley, and of
+Alexander Jaffray, Esqrs., were ordered to be presented to the committee
+of privy council, and copies of them to be left there.
+
+The business of the committee having almost daily increased within this
+period, Dr. Baker and Bennet Langton, Esq., who were the two first to
+assist me in my early labours, and who have been mentioned among the
+forerunners and coadjutors of the cause, were elected members of it. Dr.
+Kippis also was added to the list.
+
+The honorary and corresponding members, elected within the same period,
+were the Dean of Middleham; T.W. Coke, Esq., member of parliament, of
+Holkham, in Norfolk; and the Rev. William Leigh, who has been before
+mentioned, of Little Plumstead, in the same county. The latter had
+published several valuable letters in the public papers, under the
+signature of Africanus: these had excited great notice, and done much
+good. The worthy author had now collected them into a publication, and
+had offered the profits of it to the committee. Hence this mark of their
+respect was conferred upon him.
+
+The committee ordered a new edition of three thousand of the Dean of
+Middleham's Letters to be printed. Having approved of a manuscript,
+written by James Field Stanfield, a mariner, containing observations
+upon a voyage which he had lately made to the coast of Africa for
+slaves, they ordered three thousand of these to be printed also. By this
+time, the subject having been much talked of, and many doubts and
+difficulties having been thrown in the way of the abolition, by persons
+interested in the continuance of the trade, Mr. Ramsay, who has been
+often so honourably mentioned, put down upon paper all the objections
+which were then handed about, and also those answers to each, which he
+was qualified, from his superior knowledge of the subject, to suggest.
+This he did, that the members of the legislature might see the more
+intricate parts of the question unravelled, and that they might not be
+imposed upon by the spurious arguments which were then in circulation
+concerning it. Observing also the poisonous effect which _The Scriptural
+Researches on the Licitness of the Slave Trade_ had produced upon the
+minds of many, he wrote an answer on scriptural grounds to that
+pamphlet. These works were sent to the press, and three thousand copies
+of each of them were ordered to be struck off.
+
+The committee, in their arrangement of the distribution of their books,
+ordered NEWTON'S _Thoughts_, and RAMSAY'S _Objections and Answers_, to
+be sent to each member of both houses of parliament.
+
+They appointed also three sub-committees for different purposes: one to
+draw up such facts and arguments respecting the Slave Trade, with a view
+of being translated into other languages, as should give foreigners a
+suitable knowledge of the subject; another to prepare an answer to
+certain false reports which had been spread relative to the object of
+their institution, and to procure an insertion of it in the daily
+papers; and a third to draw up rules for the government of the society.
+
+By the latter end of the month of March, there was an anxious
+expectation in the public, notwithstanding the privy council had taken
+up the subject, that some notice should be taken, in the lower house of
+parliament, of the numerous petitions which had been presented there.
+There was the same expectation in many of the members of it themselves.
+Lord Penrhyn, one of the representatives for Liverpool, and a planter
+also, had anticipated this notice, by moving for such papers relative to
+ships employed, goods exported, produce imported, and duties upon the
+same, as would show the vast value of the trade, which it was in
+contemplation to abolish. But at this time Mr. Wilberforce was ill, and
+unable to gratify the expectations which had been thus apparent. The
+committee, therefore, who partook of the anxiety of the public, knew not
+what to do. They saw that two-thirds of the session had already passed.
+They saw no hope of Mr. Wilberforce's recovery for some time. Rumours
+too were afloat, that other members, of whose plans they knew nothing,
+and who might even make emancipation their object, would introduce the
+business into the house. Thus situated, they waited, as patiently as
+they could, till the 8th of April[A], when they resolved to write to Mr.
+Wilberforce, to explain to him their fears and wishes, and to submit it
+to his consideration, whether, if he were unable himself, he would
+appoint some one in whom he could confide, to make some motion in
+parliament on the subject.
+
+[Footnote A: Brissot attended in person at this committee in his way to
+America, which it was then an object with him to visit.]
+
+But the public expectation became now daily more visible. The
+inhabitants of Manchester, many of whom had signed the petition for that
+place, became impatient, and they appointed Thomas Walker and Thomas
+Cooper, Esquires, as their delegates, to proceed to London to
+communicate with the committee on this subject, to assist them in their
+deliberations upon it, and to give their attendance while it was under
+discussion by the legislature.
+
+At the time of the arrival of the delegates, who were received as such
+by the committee, a letter came from Bath, in which it was stated that
+Mr. Wilberforce's health was in such a precarious state, that his
+physicians dared not allow him to read any letter which related to the
+subject of the Slave Trade.
+
+The committee were now again at a loss how to act, when they were
+relieved from this doubtful situation by a message from Mr. Pitt, who
+desired a conference with their chairman. Mr. Sharp accordingly went,
+and on his return made the following report: "He had a full
+opportunity," he said, "of explaining to Mr. Pitt that the desire of the
+committee went to the entire abolition of the Slave Trade. Mr. Pitt
+assured him that his heart was with the committee as to this object, and
+that he considered himself pledged to Mr. Wilberforce, that the cause
+should not sustain any injury from his indisposition; but at the same
+time observed, that the subject was of great political importance, and
+it was requisite to proceed in it with temper and prudence. He did not
+apprehend, as the examinations before the privy council would yet take
+up some time, that the subject could be fully investigated in the
+present session of parliament; but said he would consider whether the
+forms of the house would admit of any measures that would be obligatory
+on them to take it up early in the ensuing session."
+
+In about a week after this conference, Mr. Morton Pitt was deputed by
+the minister to write to the committee, to say that he had found
+precedents for such a motion as he conceived to be proper, and that he
+would submit it to the House of Commons in a few days.
+
+At the next meeting, which was on the 6th of May, and at which Major
+Cartwright and the Manchester delegates assisted, Mr. Morton Pitt
+attended as a member of the committee, and said that the minister had
+fixed his motion for the 9th. It was then resolved, that deputations
+should be sent to some of the leading members of parliament, to request
+their support of the approaching motion. I was included in one of these,
+and in that which was to wait upon Mr. Fox. We were received by him in a
+friendly manner. On putting the question to him, which related to the
+object of our mission, Mr. Fox paused for a little while, as if in the
+act of deliberation; when he assured us unequivocally, and in language
+which could not be misunderstood, that he would support the object of
+the committee to its fullest extent, being convinced that there was no
+remedy for the evil, but in the total abolition of the trade.
+
+At length, the 9th, or the day fixed upon, arrived, when this important
+subject was to be mentioned in the House of Commons for the first
+time[A], with a view to the public discussion of it. It is impossible
+for me to give, within the narrow limits of this work, all that was then
+said upon it; and yet as the debate which ensued was the first which
+took place upon it, I should feel inexcusable if I were not to take some
+notice of it.
+
+[Footnote A: David Hartley made a motion some years before in the same
+house, as has been shown in a former part of this work; but this was
+only to establish a proposition, That the Slave Trade was contrary to
+the Laws of God and the Rights of Man.]
+
+Mr. Pitt rose. He said he intended to move a resolution relative to a
+subject which was of more importance than any which had ever been
+agitated in that house. This honour he should not have had, but for a
+circumstance which he could not but deeply regret, the severe
+indisposition of his friend Mr. Wilberforce, in whose hands every
+measure which belonged to justice, humanity, and the national interest,
+was peculiarly well placed. The subject in question was no less than
+that of the Slave Trade. It was obvious from the great number of
+petitions which had been presented concerning it, how much it had
+engaged the public attention, and consequently how much it deserved the
+serious notice of that house, and how much it became their duty to take
+some measure concerning it. But whatever was done on such a subject,
+every one would agree, ought to be done with the maturest deliberation.
+Two opinions had prevailed without doors, as appeared from the language
+of the different petitions. It had been pretty generally thought that
+the African Slave Trade ought to be abolished. There were others,
+however, who thought that it only stood in need of regulations. But all
+had agreed that it ought not to remain as it stood at present. But that
+measure which it might be the most proper to take, could only be
+discovered by a cool, patient, and diligent examination of the subject
+in all its circumstances, relations, and consequences. This had induced
+him to form an opinion that the present was not the proper time for
+discussing it; for the session was now far advanced, and there was also
+a want of proper materials for the full information of the house. It
+would, he thought, be better discussed, when it might produce some
+useful debate, and when that inquiry which had been instituted by His
+Majesty's Ministers, (he meant the examination by a committee of privy
+council,) should be brought to such a state of maturity as to make it
+fit that the result of it should be laid before the house. That inquiry,
+he trusted, would facilitate their investigation, and enable them the
+better to proceed to a decision which should be equally founded on
+principles of humanity, justice, and sound policy. As there was not a
+probability of reaching so desirable an end in the present state of the
+business, he meant to move a resolution to pledge the house to the
+discussion of the question early in the next  session. If by that time
+his honourable friend should be recovered, which he hoped would be the
+case, then he (Mr. Wilberforce) would take the lead in it; but should it
+unfortunately happen otherwise, then he (the Chancellor of the
+Exchequer) pledged himself to bring forward some proposition concerning
+it. The house, however, would observe, that he had studiously avoided
+giving any opinion of his own on this great subject. He thought it wiser
+to defer this till the time of the discussion should arrive. He
+concluded with moving, after having read the names of the places from
+whence the different petitions had come, "That this house will, early in
+the next session of parliament, proceed to take into consideration the
+circumstances of the Slave Trade complained of in the said petitions,
+and what may be fit to be done thereupon."
+
+Mr. Fox began by observing, that he had long taken an interest in this
+great subject, which he had also minutely examined, and that it was his
+intention to have brought something forward himself in parliament
+respecting it; but when he heard that Mr. Wilberforce had resolved to
+take it up, he was unaffectedly rejoiced, not only knowing the purity of
+his principles and character, but because, from a variety of
+considerations as to the situations in which different men stood in the
+house, there was something that made him honestly think it was better
+that the business should be in the hands of that gentleman than in his
+own. Having premised this, he said that, as so many petitions, and these
+signed by such numbers of persons of the most respectable character, had
+been presented, he was sorry that it had been found impossible that the
+subject of them could be taken up this year, and more particularly as he
+was not able to see, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer had done, that
+there were circumstances, which might happen by the next year, which
+would make it more advisable and advantageous to take it up then, than
+it would have been to enter upon it in the present session. For
+certainly there could be no information laid before the house, through
+the medium of the lords of the council, which could not more
+advantageously have been obtained by themselves, had they instituted a
+similar inquiry. It was their duty to advise the king, and not to ask
+his advice. This the constitution had laid down as one of its most
+essential principles; and though in the present instance he saw no cause
+for blame, because he was persuaded His Majesty's Ministers had not
+acted with any ill intention, it was still a principle never to be
+departed from, because it never could be departed from without
+establishing a precedent which might lead to very serious abuses. He
+lamented that the privy council, who had received no petitions from the
+people on the subject, should have instituted an inquiry, and that the
+House of Commons, the table of which had been loaded with petitions from
+various parts of the kingdom, should not have instituted any inquiry at
+all. He hoped these petitions would have a fair discussion in that
+house, independently of any information that could be given to it by His
+Majesty's Ministers. He urged again the superior advantage of an inquiry
+into such a subject carried on within those walls over any inquiry
+carried on by the lords of the council. In inquiries carried on in that
+house, they had the benefit of every circumstance of publicity; which
+was a most material benefit indeed, and that which of all others made
+the manner of conducting the parliamentary proceedings of Great Britain
+the envy and the admiration of the world. An inquiry there was better
+than an inquiry in any other place, however respectable the persons
+before and by whom it was carried on. There, all that could be said for
+the abolition or against it might be said. In that house every relative
+fact would have been produced, no information would have been withheld,
+no circumstance would have been omitted, which was necessary for
+elucidation; nothing would have been kept back. He was sorry, therefore,
+that the consideration of the question, but more particularly where so
+much human suffering was concerned, should be put off to another
+session, when it was obvious that no advantage could be gained by the
+delay.
+
+He then adverted to the secrecy which the Chancellor of the Exchequer
+had observed relative to his own opinion on this important subject. Why
+did he refuse to give it? Had Mr. Wilberforce been present, the house
+would have had a great advantage in this respect, because doubtless he
+would have stated in what view he saw the subject, and in a general way
+described the nature of the project he meant to propose. But now they
+were kept in the dark as to the nature of any plan, till the next
+session. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had indeed said, that it had
+been a very general opinion that the African Slave Trade should be
+abolished. He had said again, that others had not gone so far, but had
+given it as their opinion, that it required to be revised and regulated.
+But why did he not give his own sentiments boldly to the world on this
+great question? As for himself, he (Mr. Fox) had no scruple to declare
+at the outset, that the Slave Trade ought not to be regulated, but
+destroyed. To this opinion his mind was made up; and he was persuaded
+that, the more the subject was considered, the more his opinion would
+gain ground; and it would be admitted, that to consider it in any other
+manner, or on any other principles than those of humanity and justice,
+would be idle and absurd. If there were any such men, and he did not
+know but that there were those, who, led away by local and interested
+considerations, thought the Slave Trade might still continue under
+certain modifications, these were the dupes of error, and mistook what
+they thought their interest, for what he would undertake to convince
+them was their loss. Let such men only hear the case further, and they
+would find the result to be, that a cold-hearted policy was folly when
+it opposed the great principles of humanity and justice.
+
+He concluded by saying that he would not oppose the resolution, if other
+members thought it best to postpone the consideration of the subject;
+but he should have been better pleased if it had been discussed sooner;
+and he certainly reserved to himself the right of voting for any
+question upon it that should be brought forward by any other member in
+the course of the present session.
+
+The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, that nothing he had heard had
+satisfied him of the propriety of departing from the rule he had laid
+down for himself, of not offering, but of studiously avoiding to offer,
+any opinion upon the subject till the time should arrive when it could
+be fully argued. He thought that no discussion which could take place
+that session, could lead to any useful measure, and therefore, he had
+wished not to argue it till the whole of it could be argued. A day would
+come, when every member would have an opportunity of stating his
+opinion; and he wished it might be discussed with a proper spirit on all
+sides, on fair and liberal principles, and without any shackles from
+local and interested considerations.
+
+With regard to the inquiries instituted before the committee of privy
+council, he was sure, as soon as it became obvious that the subject must
+undergo a discussion, it was the duty of His Majesty's Ministers to set
+those inquiries on foot, which should best enable them to judge in what
+manner they could meet or offer any proposition respecting the Slave
+Trade. And although such previous examinations by no means went to
+deprive that house of its undoubted right to institute those inquiries;
+or to preclude them, they would be found greatly to facilitate them.
+But, exclusive of this consideration, it would have been utterly
+impossible to have come to any discussion of the subject, that could
+have been brought to a conclusion in the course of the present session.
+Did the inquiry then before the privy council prove a loss of time? So
+far from it, that, upon the whole, time had been gained by it. He had
+moved the resolution, therefore, to pledge the house to bring on the
+discussion early in the next session, when they would have a full
+opportunity of considering every part of the subject: first, whether the
+whole of the trade ought to be abolished; and, if so, how and when. If
+it should be thought that the trade should only be put under certain
+regulations, what those regulations ought to be, and when they should
+take place. These were questions which must be considered; and therefore
+he had made his resolution as wide as possible, that there might be room
+for all necessary considerations to be taken in. He repeated his
+declaration, that he would reserve his sentiments till the day of
+discussion should arrive; and again declared, that he earnestly wished
+to avoid an anticipation of the debate upon the subject. But if such
+debate was likely to take place, he would withdraw his motion, and offer
+it another day.
+
+A few words then passed between Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox in reply to each
+other; after which Lord Penrhyn rose. He said there were two classes of
+men, the African merchants, and the planters, both of whose characters
+had been grossly calumniated. These wished that an inquiry might be
+instituted, and this immediately, conscious that the more their conduct
+was examined the less they would be found to merit the opprobrium with
+which they had been loaded. The charges against the Slave Trade were
+either true or false. If they were true, it ought to be abolished; but
+if upon inquiry they were found to be without foundation, justice ought
+to be done to the reputation of those who were concerned in it. He then
+said a few words, by which he signified, that, after all, it might not
+be an improper measure to make regulations in the trade.
+
+Mr. Burke said, the noble lord, who was a man of honour himself, had
+reasoned from his own conduct, and, being conscious of his own
+integrity, was naturally led to imagine that other men were equally just
+and honourable. Undoubtedly the merchants and planters had a right to
+call for an investigation of their conduct, and their doing so did them
+great credit. The Slave Trade also ought equally to be inquired into.
+Neither did he deny that it was right his Majesty's ministers should
+inquire into its merits for themselves. They had done their duty; but
+that House, who had the petitions of the people on their table,
+neglected it, by having so long deferred an inquiry of their own. If
+that House wished to preserve their functions, their understandings,
+their honour, and their dignity, he advised them to beware of committees
+of privy council. If they suffered their business to be done by such
+means, they were abdicating their trust and character, and making way
+for an entire abolition of their functions, which they were parting with
+one after another, Thus:--
+
+
+  Star after star goes out, and all is night.
+
+
+If they neglected the petitions of their constituents, they must fall,
+and the privy-counsel be instituted in their stead. What would be the
+consequence? His Majesty's Ministers, instead of consulting them, and
+giving them the opportunity of exercising their functions of
+deliberation and legislation, would modify the measures of government
+elsewhere, and bring down the edicts of the privy council to them to
+register. Mr. Burke said, he was one of those who wished for the
+abolition of the Slave Trade. He thought it ought to be abolished, on
+principles of humanity and justice. If, however, opposition of interests
+should render its total abolition impossible, it ought to be regulated,
+and that immediately. They need not send to the West Indies to know the
+opinions of the planters on the subject. They were to consider first of
+all, and abstractedly from all political, personal, and local
+considerations, that the Slave Trade was directly contrary to the
+principles of humanity and justice, and to the spirit of the British
+constitution; and that the state of slavery, which followed it, however
+mitigated, was a state so improper, so degrading, and so ruinous to the
+feelings and capacities of human nature, that it ought not to be
+suffered to exist. He deprecated delay in this business, as well for the
+sake of planters as of the slaves.
+
+Mr. Gascoyne, the other member for Liverpool, said he had no objection
+that the discussion should stand over to the next session of parliament,
+provided it could not come on in the present, because he was persuaded
+it would ultimately be found that his constituents, who were more
+immediately concerned in the trade, and who had been so shamefully
+calumniated, were men of respectable character. He hoped the privy
+council would print their Report when they had brought their inquiries
+to a conclusion, and that they would lay it before the House and the
+public, in order to enable all concerned to form a judgment of what was
+proper to be done relative to the subject next session. With respect,
+however, to the total abolition of the Slave Trade, he must confess that
+such a measure was both unnecessary, visionary, and impracticable; but
+he wished some alterations or modifications to be adopted. He hoped
+that, when the House came to go into the general question, they would
+not forget the trade, commerce, and navigation of the country.
+
+Mr. Rolle said, he had received instruction from his constituents to
+inquire if the grievances, which had been alleged to result from the
+Slave Trade, were well founded; and, if it appear that they were, to
+assist in applying a remedy. He was glad the discussion had been put off
+till next session, as it would give all of them an opportunity of
+considering the subject with more mature deliberation.
+
+Mr. Martin desired to say a few words only. He put the case, that,
+supposing the slaves were treated ever so humanely, when they were
+carried to the West Indies, what compensation could be made them for
+being torn from their nearest relations, and from everything that was
+dear to them in life? He hoped no political advantage, no national
+expediency, would be allowed to weigh in the scale against the eternal
+rules of moral rectitude. As for himself, he had no hesitation to
+declare, in this early stage of the business, that he should think
+himself a wicked wretch if he did not do everything in his power to put
+a stop to the Slave Trade.
+
+Sir William Dolben said, that he did not then wish to enter into the
+discussion of the general question of the abolition of the Slave Trade,
+which the Chancellor of the Exchequer was so desirous of postponing; but
+he wished to say a few words on what he conceived to be a most crying
+evil, and which might be immediately remedied, without infringing upon
+the limits of that question. He did not allude to the sufferings of the
+poor Africans in their own country, nor afterwards in the West India
+islands, but to that intermediate state of tenfold misery which they
+underwent in their transportation. When put on board the ships, the poor
+unhappy wretches were chained to each other, hand and foot, and stowed
+so close, that they were not allowed above a foot and a half for each
+individual in breadth. Thus crammed together like herrings in a barrel,
+they contracted putrid and fatal disorders; so that they who came to
+inspect them in a morning had occasionally to pick dead slaves out of
+their rows, and to unchain their carcasses from the bodies of their
+wretched fellow-sufferers, to whom they had been fastened. Nor was it
+merely to the slaves that the baneful effects of the contagion thus
+created were confined. This contagion affected the ships' crews, and
+numbers of the seamen employed in the horrid traffic perished. This
+evil, he said, called aloud for a remedy, and that remedy ought to be
+applied soon; otherwise no less than ten thousand lives might be lost
+between this and next session. He wished therefore this grievance to be
+taken into consideration, independently of the general question; and
+that some regulations, such as restraining the captains from taking
+above a certain number of slaves on board, according to the size of
+their vessels, and obliging them to let in fresh air, and provide better
+accommodation for the slaves during their passage, should be adopted.
+
+Mr. Young wished the consideration of the whole subject to stand over to
+the next session.
+
+Sir James Johnstone, though a planter, professed himself a friend to the
+abolition of the Slave Trade. He said it was highly necessary that the
+House should do something respecting it; but whatever was to be done
+should be done soon, as delay might be productive of bad consequences in
+the islands.
+
+Mr. L. Smith stood up a zealous advocate for the abolition of the Slave
+Trade. He said that even Lord Penrhyn and Mr. Gascoyne, the members for
+Liverpool, had admitted the evil of it to a certain extent; for
+regulations or modifications, in which they seemed to acquiesce, were
+unnecessary where abuses did not really exist.
+
+Mr. Grigby thought it his duty to declare, that no privy council report,
+or other mode of examination, could influence him. A traffic in the
+persons of men was so odious, that it ought everywhere, as soon as ever
+it was discovered, to be abolished.
+
+Mr. Bastard was anxious that the House should proceed to the discussion
+of the subject in the present session. The whole country, he said, had
+petitioned; and was it any satisfaction to the country to be told, that
+the committee of privy council were inquiring? Who knew anything of what
+was doing by the committee of privy council, or what progress they were
+making? The inquiry ought to have been instituted in that House, and in
+the face of the public, that everybody concerned might know what was
+going on. The numerous petitions of the people ought immediately to be
+attended to. He reprobated delay on this occasion; and as the honourable
+baronet, Sir William Dolben, had stated facts which were shocking to
+humanity, he hoped he would move that a committee might be appointed to
+inquire into their existence, that a remedy might be applied, if
+possible, before the sailing of the next ships for Africa.
+
+Mr. Whitbread professed himself a strenuous advocate for the total and
+immediate abolition of the Slave Trade. It was contrary to nature, and
+to every principle of justice, humanity, and religion.
+
+Mr. Pelham stated, that he had very maturely considered the subject of
+the Slave Trade; and had he not known that the business was in the hands
+of an honourable member, (whose absence from the house, and the cause of
+it, no man lamented more sincerely than he did,) he should have ventured
+to propose something concerning it himself. If it should be thought that
+the trade ought not to be entirely done away, the sooner it was
+regulated the better. He had a plan for this purpose, which appeared to
+him to be likely to produce some salutary effects. He wished to know if
+any such thing would be permitted to be proposed in the course of the
+present session.
+
+The Chancellor of the Exchequer said he should be happy, if he thought
+the circumstances of the house were such as to enable them to proceed to
+an immediate discussion of the question; but as that did not appear,
+from the reasons he had before stated, to be the case, he could only
+assure the honourable gentleman, that the same motives which had induced
+him to propose an inquiry into the subject early in the next session of
+parliament, would make him desirous of receiving any other light which
+could be thrown upon it.
+
+The question having been then put, the resolution was agreed to
+unanimously. Thus ended the first debate that ever took place in the
+Commons, on this important subject. This debate, though many of the
+persons concerned in it abstained cautiously from entering into the
+merits of the general question, became interesting, in consequence of
+circumstances attending it. Several rose up at once to give relief, as
+it were, to their feelings by utterance; but by so doing they were
+prevented, many of them, from being heard. They who were heard, spoke
+with peculiar energy, as if warmed in an extraordinary manner by the
+subject. There was an apparent enthusiasm in behalf of the injured
+Africans. It was supposed by some, that there was a moment, in which, if
+the Chancellor of the Exchequer had moved for an immediate abolition of
+the trade, he would have carried it that night; and both he and others,
+who professed an attachment to the cause, were censured for not having
+taken a due advantage of the disposition which was so apparent. But
+independently of the inconsistency of doing this on the part of the
+ministry, while the privy council were in the midst of their inquiries,
+and of the improbability that the other branches of the legislature
+would have concurred in so hasty a measure; what good would have accrued
+to the cause, if the abolition had been then carried? Those concerned in
+the cruel system would never have rested quietly under the stigma under
+which they then laboured. They would have urged, that they had been
+condemned unheard. The merchants would have said, that they had had no
+notice of such an event, that they might prepare, a way for their
+vessels in other trades. The planters would have said, that they had had
+no time allowed them to provide such supplies from Africa as might
+enable them to keep up their respective stocks. They would, both of
+them, have called aloud for immediate indemnification. They would have
+decried the policy of the measure of the abolition; and where had it
+been proved? They would have demanded a reverse of it; and might they
+not in cooler moments have succeeded? Whereas, by entering into a
+patient discussion of the merits of the question; by bringing evidence
+upon it; by reasoning upon that evidence night after night, and year
+after year, and thus by disputing the ground inch as it were by inch,
+the abolition of the Slave Trade stands upon a rock, upon which it never
+can be shaken. Many of those who were concerned in the cruel system have
+now given up their prejudices, because they became convinced in the
+contest. A stigma too has been fixed upon it, which can never be erased:
+and in a large record, in which the cruelty and injustice of it have
+been recognised in indelible characters, its impolicy also has been
+eternally enrolled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+Continuation to the middle of July.--Anxiety of Sir William Dolben to
+lessen the horrors of the Middle Passage till the great question
+should be discussed; brings in a bill for that purpose; debate upon
+it.--Evidence examined against it; its inconsistency and
+falsehoods.--Further debate upon it.--Bill passed, and carried to the
+Lords; vexatious delays and opposition there; carried backwards and
+forwards to both houses.--At length finally passed.--Proceedings of
+the committee in the interim; effects of them.
+
+
+It was supposed, after the debate, of which the substance has been just
+given, that there would have been no further discussion of the subject
+till the next year; but Sir William Dolben became more and more affected
+by those considerations which he had offered to the house on the ninth
+of May. The trade, he found, was still to go on. The horrors of the
+transportation, or Middle Passage, as it was called, which he conceived
+to be the worst in the long catalogue of evils belonging to the system,
+would of course accompany it. The partial discussion of these, he
+believed, would be no infringement of the late resolution of the house.
+He was desirous, therefore, of doing something in the course of the
+present session, by which the miseries of the trade might be diminished
+as much as possible, while it lasted, or till the legislature could take
+up the whole of the question. This desire he mentioned to several of his
+friends; and as these approved of his design, he made it known on the
+twenty-first of May in the House of Commons.
+
+He began by observing, that he would take up but little of their time.
+He rose to move for leave to bring in a bill for the relief of those
+unhappy persons, the natives of Africa, from the hardships to which they
+were usually exposed in their passage from the coast of Africa to the
+colonies. He did not mean, by any regulations he might introduce for
+this purpose, to countenance or sanction the Slave Trade, which, however
+modified, would be always wicked and unjustifiable. Nor did he mean, by
+introducing these, to go into the general question which the house had
+prohibited. The bill which he had in contemplation, went only to limit
+the number of persons to be put on board to the tonnage of the vessel
+which was to carry them, in order to prevent them from being crowded too
+closely together; to secure to them good and sufficient provisions; and
+to take cognizance of other matters, which related to their health and
+accommodation; and this only till parliament could enter into the
+general merits of the question. This humane interference he thought no
+member would object to. Indeed, those for Liverpool had both of them
+admitted, on the ninth of May, that regulations were desirable; and he
+had since conversed with them, and was happy to learn that they would
+not oppose him on this occasion.
+
+Mr. Whitbread highly approved of the object of the worthy baronet, which
+was to diminish the sufferings of an unoffending people. Whatever could
+be done to relieve them in their hard situation, till parliament could
+take up the whole of their case, ought to be done by men living in a
+civilized country, and professing the Christian religion: he therefore
+begged leave to second the motion which had been made.
+
+General Norton was sorry that he had not risen up sooner. He wished to
+have seconded this humane motion himself. It had his most cordial
+approbation.
+
+Mr. Burgess complimented the worthy baronet on the honour he had done
+himself on this occasion, and congratulated the house on the good, which
+they were likely to do by acceding, as he was sure they would, to his
+proposition.
+
+Mr. Joliffe rose, and said that the motion in question should have his
+strenuous support.
+
+Mr. Gascoyne stated, that having understood from the honourable baronet
+that he meant only to remedy the evils, which were stated to exist in
+transporting the inhabitants of Africa to the West Indies, he had told
+them that he would not object to the introduction of such a bill. Should
+it however interfere with the general question, the discussion of which
+had been prohibited, he would then oppose it. He must also reserve
+another case for his opposition; and this would be, if the evils of
+which it took cognizance should appear not to have been well founded. He
+had written to his constituents to be made acquainted with this
+circumstance, and he must be guided by them on the subject.
+
+Mr. Martin was surprised how any person could give an opposition to such
+a bill. Whatever were the merits of the great question, all would allow,
+that if human beings were to be transported across the ocean, they
+should be carried over with as little suffering as possible to
+themselves.
+
+Mr. Hamilton deprecated the subdivision of this great and important
+question, which the house had reserved for another session. Every
+endeavour to meddle with one part of it, before the whole of it could be
+taken into consideration, looked rather as if it came from an enemy than
+from a friend. He was fearful that such a bill as this would sanction a
+traffic, which should never be viewed but in a hostile light, or as
+repugnant to the feelings of our nature, and to the voice of our
+religion.
+
+Lord Frederic Campbell was convinced that the postponing of all
+consideration of the subject till the next session was a wise measure.
+He was sure that neither the house nor the public were in a temper
+sufficiently cool to discuss it properly. There was a general warmth of
+feeling, or an enthusiasm about it, which ran away with the
+understandings of men, and disqualified them from judging soberly
+concerning it. He wished, therefore, that the present motion might be
+deferred.
+
+Mr. William Smith said, that if the motion of the honourable Baronet had
+trespassed upon the great question reserved for consideration, he would
+have opposed it himself; but he conceived the subject which it
+comprehended might with propriety be separately considered; and if it
+were likely that a hundred, but much more a thousand, lives would be
+saved by this bill, it was the duty of that house to adopt it without
+delay.
+
+The Chancellor of the Exchequer, though he meant still to conceal his
+opinion as to the general merits of the question, could not be silent,
+here. He was of opinion that he could very consistently give this motion
+his support. There was a possibility (and a bare possibility was a
+sufficient ground with him) that in consequence of the resolution lately
+come to by the house, and the temper then manifested in it, those
+persons who were concerned in the Slave Trade might put the natives of
+Africa in a worse situation, during their transportation to the
+colonies, even than they were in before, by cramming additional numbers
+on board their vessels, in order to convey as many as possible to the
+West Indies before parliament ultimately decided on the subject. The
+possibility, therefore, that such a consequence might grow out of their
+late resolution during the intervening months between the end of the
+present and the commencement of the next session, was a good and
+sufficient parliamentary ground for them to provide immediate means to
+prevent the existence of such an evil. He considered this as an act of
+indispensable duty, and on that ground the bill should have his support.
+
+Soon after this the question was put, and leave was given for the
+introduction of the bill.
+
+An account of these proceedings of the house having been sent to the
+merchants of Liverpool, they held a meeting, and came to resolutions on
+the subject. They determined to oppose the bill in every stage in which
+it should be brought forward, and, what was extraordinary, even the
+principle of it. Accordingly, between the 21st of May and the 2nd of
+June, on which latter day the bill having been previously read a second
+time was to be committed, petitions from interested persons had been
+brought against it, and consent had been obtained, that both council and
+evidence should be heard.
+
+The order of the day having been read on the 2nd of June for the house
+to resolve itself into a committee of the whole house, a discussion took
+place relative to the manner in which the business was to be conducted.
+This being over, the counsel began their observations; and, as soon as
+they had finished, evidence was called to the bar in behalf of the
+petitions which had been delivered.
+
+From the 2nd of June to the 17th the house continued to hear the
+evidence at intervals, but the members for Liverpool took every
+opportunity of occasioning delay. They had recourse twice to counting
+out the house; and at another time, though complaint had been made of
+their attempts to procrastinate, they opposed the resuming of their own
+evidence with the same view; and this merely for the frivolous reason,
+that, though there was then a suitable opportunity, notice had not been
+previously given. But in this proceeding, other members feeling
+indignant at their conduct, they were overruled.
+
+The witnesses brought by the Liverpool merchants against this humane
+bill were the same as they had before sent for examination to the privy
+council, namely, Mr. Norris, Lieutenant Matthews, and others. On the
+other side of the question it was not deemed expedient to bring any. It
+was soon perceived that it would be possible to refute the former out of
+their own mouths, and to do this seemed more eligible than to proceed in
+the other way. Mr. Pitt, however, took care to send Captain Parrey, of
+the Royal Navy, to Liverpool, that he might take the tonnage and
+internal dimensions of several slave-vessels, which were then there,
+supposing that these, when known, would enable the house to detect any
+misrepresentations, which the delegates from that town might be disposed
+to make upon this subject.
+
+It was the object of the witnesses, when examined, to prove two things:
+first, that regulations were unnecessary, because the present mode of
+the transportation was sufficiently convenient for the objects of it,
+and was well adapted to preserve their comfort and their health. They
+had sufficient room, sufficient air, and sufficient provisions. When
+upon deck, they made merry and amused themselves with dancing. As to the
+mortality, or the loss of them by death in the course of their passage,
+it was trifling. In short, the voyage from Africa to the West Indies
+"was one of the happiest periods of a Negro's life."
+
+Secondly, that if the merchants were hindered from taking less that two
+full sized, or three smaller Africans, to a ton, then the restrictions
+would operate not as the regulation, but as the utter ruin of the trade.
+Hence the present bill, under the specious mask of a temporary
+interference, sought nothing less than its abolition.
+
+These assertions having been severally made, by the former of which it
+was insinuated that the African, unhappy in his own country, found in
+the middle passage, under the care of the merchants, little less than an
+Elysian retreat, it was now proper to institute a severe inquiry into
+the truth of them. Mr. Pitt, Sir Charles Middleton, Mr. William Smith,
+and Mr. Beaufoy, took a conspicuous part on this occasion, but
+particularly the two latter, to whom much praise was due for the
+constant attention they bestowed upon this subject. Question after
+question was put by these to the witnesses; and from their own mouths
+they dragged out, by means of a cross-examination as severe as could be
+well instituted, the following melancholy account:--
+
+Every slave, whatever his size might be, was found to have only five
+feet and six inches in length, and sixteen inches in breadth, to lie in.
+The floor was covered with bodies stowed or packed according to this
+allowance: but between the floor and the deck or ceiling were often
+platforms or broad shelves in the mid-way, which were covered with
+bodies also. The height from the floor to the ceiling, within which
+space the bodies on the floor and those on the platforms lay, seldom
+exceeded five feet eight inches, and in some cases it did not exceed
+four feet.
+
+The men were chained two and two together by their hands and feet, and
+were chained also by means of ring-bolts, which were fastened to the
+deck. They were confined in this manner at least all the time they
+remained upon the coast, which was from six weeks to six months as it
+might happen.
+
+Their allowance consisted of one pint of water a day to each person, and
+they were fed twice a day with yams and horsebeans.
+
+After meals they jumped up in their irons for exercise. This was so
+necessary for their health, that they were whipped if they refused to do
+it; and this jumping had been termed dancing.
+
+They were usually fifteen and sixteen hours below deck out of the
+twenty-four. In rainy weather they could not be brought up for two or
+three days together. If the ship was full, their situation was then
+distressing. They sometimes drew their breath with anxious and laborious
+efforts, and some died of suffocation.
+
+With respect to their health in these voyages, the mortality, where the
+African constitution was the strongest, or on the windward coast, was
+only about five in a hundred. In thirty-five voyages, an account of
+which was produced, about six in a hundred was the average number lost.
+But this loss was still greater at Calabar and Bonny, which were the
+greatest markets for slaves. This loss, too, did not include those who
+died, either while the vessels were lying upon the Coast, or after their
+arrival in the West Indies, of the disorders which they had contracted
+upon the voyage. Three and four in a hundred had been known to die in
+this latter case.
+
+But besides these facts, which were forced out of the witnesses by means
+of the cross-examination which took place, they were detected in various
+falsehoods.
+
+They had asserted that the ships in this trade were peculiarly
+constructed, or differently from others, in order that they might carry
+a great number of persons with convenience; whereas Captain Parrey
+asserted, that out of the twenty-six, which he had seen, ten only had
+been built expressly for this employ.
+
+They had stated the average height between decks at about five feet and
+four inches. But Captain Parrey showed, that out of the nine he
+measured, the height in four of the smallest was only four feet eight
+inches, and the average height in all of them was but five feet two.
+
+They had asserted that vessels under two hundred tons had no platforms.
+But by his account the four just mentioned were of this tonnage, and yet
+all of them had platforms either wholly or in part.
+
+On other points they were found both to contradict themselves and one
+another. They had asserted, as before mentioned, that if they were
+restricted to less than two full-grown slaves to a ton, the trade would
+be ruined. But in examining into the particulars of nineteen vessels,
+which they produced themselves, five of them only had cargoes equal to
+the proportion which they stated to be necessary to the existence of the
+trade. The other fourteen carried a less number of slaves (and they
+might have taken more on board if they had pleased); so that the average
+number in the nineteen was but one man and four-fifths to a ton, or ten
+in a hundred below their lowest standard[A]. One again said, that no
+inconvenience arose in consequence of the narrow space allowed to each
+individual in these voyages. Another said, that smaller vessels were
+more healthy than larger, because, among other reasons, they had a less
+proportion of slaves as to number on board.
+
+[Footnote A: The falsehood of their statements in this respect was
+proved again afterwards by facts. For, after the regulation had taken
+place, they lost fewer slaves and made greater profits.]
+
+They were found also guilty of a wilful concealment of such facts, as
+they knew, if communicated, would have invalidated their own testimony.
+I was instrumental in detecting them on one of these occasions myself.
+When Mr. Dalzell was examined, he was not wholly unknown to me; my
+Liverpool muster-rolls told me that he had lost fifteen seamen out of
+forty in his last voyage. This was a sufficient ground to go upon; for
+generally, where the mortality of the seamen has been great, it may be
+laid down that the mortality of the slaves has been considerable also. I
+waited patiently till his evidence was nearly closed, but he had then
+made no unfavourable statements to the house. I desired, therefore, that
+a question might be put to him, and in such a manner, that he might know
+that they, who put it, had got a clue to his secrets. He became
+immediately embarrassed; his voice faltered; he confessed with trembling
+that he had lost a third of his sailors in his last voyage. Pressed hard
+immediately by other questions, he then acknowledged that he had lost
+one hundred and twenty, or a third of his slaves, also. But would he say
+that these were all he had lost in that voyage? No; twelve others had
+perished by an accident, for they were drowned. But were no others lost
+beside the one hundred and twenty and the twelve? None, he said, upon
+the voyage, but between twenty and thirty before he left the Coast. Thus
+this champion of the merchants, this advocate for the health and
+happiness of slaves in the middle passage, lost nearly a hundred and
+sixty of the unhappy persons committed to his superior care, in a single
+voyage!
+
+The evidence, on which I have now commented, having been delivered, the
+counsel summed up on the 17th of June, when the committee proceeded to
+fill up the blanks in the bill. Mr. Pitt moved that the operation of it
+be retrospective, and that it commence from the 10th instant. This was
+violently opposed by Lord Penrhyn, Mr. Gascoyne, and Mr. Brickdale, but
+was at length acceded to.
+
+Sir William Dolben then proposed to apportion five men to every three
+tons in every ship under one hundred and fifty tons burden, which had
+the space of five feet between the decks, and three men to two tons in
+every vessel beyond one hundred and fifty tons burden, which had equal
+accommodation in point of height between the decks. This occasioned a
+very warm dispute, which was not settled for some time, and which gave
+rise to some beautiful and interesting speeches on the subject.
+
+Mr. William Smith pointed out in the clearest manner many of the
+contradictions, which I have just stated in commenting upon the
+evidence; indeed he had been a principal means of detecting them. He
+proved how little worthy of belief the witnesses had shown themselves,
+and how necessary they had made the present bill by their own
+confession. The worthy baronet, indeed, had been too indulgent to the
+merchants, in the proportion he had fixed of the number of persons to be
+carried to the tonnage of their vessels. He then took a feeling view of
+what would be the wretched state of the poor Africans on board, even if
+the bill passed as it now stood; and conjured the house, if they would
+not allow them more room, at least not to infringe upon that which had
+been proposed.
+
+Lord Belgrave (afterwards Grosvenor) animadverted with great ability
+upon the cruelties of the trade, which he said had been fully proved at
+the bar. He took notice of the extraordinary opposition which had been
+made to the bill then before them, and which he believed every
+gentleman, who had a proper feeling of humanity, would condemn. If the
+present mode of carrying on the trade received the countenance of that
+house, the poor unfortunate African would have occasion doubly to curse
+his fate. He would not only curse the womb that brought him forth, but
+the British nation also, whose diabolical avarice had made his cup of
+misery still more bitter. He hoped that the members for Liverpool would
+urge no further opposition to the bill, but that they would join with
+the house in an effort to enlarge the empire of humanity; and that,
+while they were stretching out the strong arm of justice to punish the
+degraders of British honour and humanity in the East, they would with
+equal spirit exert their powers to dispense the blessings of their
+protection to those unhappy Africans, who were to serve them in the
+West.
+
+Mr. Beaufoy entered minutely into an examination of the information,
+which had been given by the witnesses, and which afforded unanswerable
+arguments for the passing of the bill. He showed the narrow space which
+they themselves had been made to allow for the package of a human body,
+and the ingenious measures they were obliged to resort to for stowing
+this living cargo within the limits of the ship. He adverted next to the
+case of Mr. Dalzell, and showed how one dismal fact after another, each
+making against their own testimony, was extorted from him. He then went
+to the trifling mortality said to be experienced in these voyages, upon
+which subject he spoke in the following words: "Though the witnesses are
+some of them interested in the trade, and all of them parties against
+the bill, their confession is, that of the negroes of the windward
+coast, who are men of the strongest constitution which Africa affords,
+no less on an average than five in each hundred perish in the voyage,--a
+voyage, it must be remembered but of six weeks. In a twelvemonth, then,
+what must be the proportion of the dead? No less than forty-three in a
+hundred, which is seventeen times the usual rate of mortality; for all
+the estimates of life suppose no more than a fortieth of the people, or
+two and a half in the hundred, to die within the space of a year. Such
+then is the comparison. In the ordinary course of nature the number of
+persons, (including those in age and infancy, the weakest periods of
+existence,) who perish in the space of a twelvemonth, is at the rate of
+but two and a half in a hundred; but in an African voyage,
+notwithstanding the old are excluded and few infants admitted, so that
+those who are shipped are in the firmest period of life, the list of
+deaths, presents an annual mortality of forty-three in a hundred. It
+presents this mortality even in vessels from the windward coast of
+Africa; but in those which sail to Bonny, Benin, and the Calabars, from
+whence the greatest proportion of the slaves are brought, this mortality
+is increased by a variety of causes, (of which the greater length of the
+voyage is one,) and is said to be twice as large which supposes that in
+every hundred the deaths annually amount to no less than eighty-six. Yet
+even the former comparatively low mortality; of which the counsel speaks
+with so much satisfaction, as a proof of the kind and compassionate
+treatment of the slaves, even this indolent and lethargic destruction
+gives to the march of death seventeen times its usual speed. It is a
+destruction, which, if general but for ten years, would depopulate the
+world, blast the purposes of its creation, and extinguish the human
+race."
+
+After having gone with great ability through the other branches of the
+subject, he concluded in the following manner:--"Thus I have considered
+the various objections which have been stated to the bill, and am
+ashamed to reflect that it could be necessary to speak so long in
+defence of such a cause; for what, after all, is asked by the proposed
+regulations? On the part of the Africans, the whole of their purport is,
+that they whom you allow to be robbed of all things but life, may not
+unnecessarily and wantonly be deprived of life also. To the honour; to
+the wisdom, to the feelings of the house, I now make my appeal,
+perfectly confident that you will not tolerate, as senators, a traffic
+which, as men, you shudder to contemplate, and that you will not take
+upon yourselves the responsibility of this waste of existence. To the
+memory of former parliaments the horrors of this traffic will be an
+eternal reproach; yet former parliaments have not known, as you on the
+clearest evidence now know, the dreadful nature of this trade. Should
+you reject this bill, no exertions of yours to rescue from oppression
+the suffering inhabitants of your eastern empire; no records of the
+prosperous state to which, after a long and unsuccessful war, you have
+restored your native land; no proofs; however splendid, that under your
+guidance Great Britain has recovered her rank, and is again the
+arbitress of nations, will save your names from the stigma of
+everlasting dishonour. The broad mantle of this one infamy will cover
+with substantial blackness the radiance of your glory, and change to
+feelings of abhorrence the present admiration of the world. But pardon
+the supposition of so impossible an event. I believe that justice and
+mercy may be considered as the attributes of your character, and that
+you will not tarnish their lustre on this occasion."
+
+The Chancellor of the Exchequer rose next; and after having made some
+important observations on the evidence (which took up much time), he
+declared himself most unequivocally in favour of the motion made by the
+honourable baronet. He was convinced that the regulation proposed would
+not tend to the abolition of the trade; but if it even went so far, he
+had no hesitation openly and boldly to declare, that if it could not be
+carried on in a manner different from that stated by the members for
+Liverpool, he would retract what he had said on a former day against
+going into the general question; and, waving every other discussion than
+what had that day taken place, he would give his vote for the utter
+annihilation of it at once. It was a trade, which it was shocking to
+humanity to hear detailed. If it were to be carried, on as proposed by
+the petitioners, it would, besides its own intrinsic baseness, be
+contrary to every humane and Christian principle, and to every sentiment
+that ought to inspire the breast of man; and would reflect the greatest
+dishonour on the British senate and the British nation. He, therefore,
+hoped that the house, being now in possession of such information as
+never hitherto had been brought before them, would in some measure
+endeavour to extricate themselves from that guilt, and from that
+remorse, which every one of them ought to feel for having suffered such
+monstrous cruelties to be practised upon an helpless and unoffending
+part of the human race.
+
+Mr. Martin complimented Mr. Pitt in terms of the warmest panegyric on
+his noble sentiments, declaring that they reflected the greatest honour
+upon him both as an Englishman and as a man.
+
+Soon after this the house divided upon the motion of Sir William Dolben.
+Fifty-six appeared to be in favour of it, and only five against it. The
+latter consisted of the two members for Liverpool and three other
+interested persons. This was the first division which ever took place on
+this important subject. The other blanks were then filled up, and the
+bill was passed without further delay.
+
+The next day, or on the 18th of June, it was carried up to the House of
+Lords. The slave-merchants of London, Liverpool, and Bristol,
+immediately presented petitions against it, as they had done in the
+lower house. They prayed that counsel might open their case; and though
+they had been driven from the Commons on account of their evidence, with
+disgrace, they had the effrontery to ask that they might call witnesses
+here also.
+
+Counsel and evidence having been respectively heard, the bill was
+ordered to be committed the next day. The Lords attended according to
+summons. But on a motion by Dr. Warren, the Bishop of Bangor, who stated
+that the Lord Chancellor Thurlow was much indisposed, and that he wished
+to be present when the question was discussed, the committee was
+postponed.
+
+It was generally thought that the reason for this postponement, and
+particularly as it was recommended by a prelate, was that the Chancellor
+might have an opportunity of forwarding this humane bill. But it was
+found to be quite otherwise. It appeared that the motive was, that he
+might give to it, by his official appearance as the chief servant of the
+crown in that house, all the opposition in his power. For when the day
+arrived which had been appointed for the discussion, and when the Lords
+Bathurst and Hawkesbury (afterwards Liverpool) had expressed their
+opinions, which were different, relative to the time when the bill
+should take place, he rose up and pronounced a bitter and vehement
+oration against it. He said, among other things, that it was full of
+inconsistency and nonsense from the beginning to the end. The French had
+lately offered large premiums for the encouragement of this trade. They
+were a politic people, and the presumption was, that we were doing
+politically wrong by abandoning it. The bill ought not to have been
+brought forward in this session. The introduction of it was a direct
+violation of the faith of the other house. It was unjust, when an
+assurance had been given that the question should not be agitated till
+next year, that this sudden fit of philanthropy, which was but a few
+days old, should be allowed to disturb the public mind, and to become
+the occasion of bringing men to the metropolis with tears in their eyes
+and horror in their countenances, to deprecate the ruin of their
+property, which they had embarked on the faith of parliament.
+
+The extraordinary part which the Lord Chancellor Thurlow took upon this
+occasion, was ascribed at the time by many who moved in the higher
+circles, to a shyness or misunderstanding which had taken place between
+him and Mr. Pitt on other matters; when, believing this bill to have
+been a favourite measure with the latter, he determined to oppose it.
+But whatever were his motives (and let us hope that he could never have
+been actuated by so malignant a spirit as that of sacrificing the
+happiness of forty thousand persons for the next year to spite the
+gratification of an individual), his opposition had a mischievous
+effect, on account of the high situation in which he stood; for he not
+only influenced some of the Lords themselves, but, by taking the cause
+of the slave-merchants so conspicuously under his wing, he gave them
+boldness to look up again under the stigma of their iniquitous calling,
+and courage even to resume vigorous operations after their disgraceful
+defeat. Hence arose those obstacles which will be found to have been
+thrown in the way of the passing of the bill from this period.
+
+Among the Lords who are to be particularly noticed as having taken the
+same side as the Lord Chancellor in this debate, were the Duke of
+Chandos and the Earl of Sandwich. The former foresaw nothing but
+insurrections of the slaves in our islands, and the massacre of their
+masters there, in consequence of the agitation of this question. The
+latter expected nothing less than the ruin of our marine. He begged the
+house to consider how, by doing that which might bring about the
+abolition of this traffic, they might lessen the number of British
+sailors; how, by throwing it into the hands of France they might
+increase those of a rival nation; and how, in consequence, the flag of
+the latter might ride triumphant on the ocean. The Slave Trade was
+undoubtedly a nursery for our seamen. All objections against it in this
+respect were ill-founded. It was as healthy as the Newfoundland and many
+other trades.
+
+The debate having closed, during which nothing more was done than
+filling up the blanks with the time when the bill was to begin to
+operate, the committee was adjourned. But the bill after this dragged on
+so heavily, that it would be tedious to detail the proceedings upon it
+from day to day. I shall, therefore, satisfy myself with the following
+observations concerning them:--The committee sat not less than five
+different times, which consumed the space of eight days, before a final
+decision took place. During this time, so much was it an object to throw
+in obstacles which might occupy the little remaining time of the
+session, that other petitions were presented against the bill, and leave
+was asked, on new pretences contained in these, that counsel might be
+heard again. Letters also were read from Jamaica, about the mutinous
+disposition of the slaves there, in consequence of the stir which had
+been made about the abolition; and also from merchants in France, by
+which large offers were made to the British merchants to furnish them
+with slaves. Several regulations also were proposed in this interval,
+some of which were negatived by majorities of only one or two voices. Of
+the regulations which were carried, the most remarkable were those
+proposed by Lord Hawkesbury (afterwards Liverpool); namely, that no
+insurance should be made on the slaves, except against accidents by fire
+and water; that persons should not be appointed as officers of vessels
+transporting them, who had not been a certain number of such voyages
+before; that a regular surgeon only should be capable of being employed
+in them; and that both the captain and surgeon should have bounties, if,
+in the course of the transportation, they had lost only two in a hundred
+slaves. The Duke of Chandos again, and Lord Sydney, were the more
+conspicuous among the opposers of the humane bill; and the Duke of
+Richmond, the Marquis Townshend, the Earl of Carlisle, the Bishop of
+London, and Earl Stanhope, among the most strenuous supporters of it. At
+length it passed by a majority of nineteen to eleven votes.
+
+On the 4th of July, when the bill had been returned to the Commons, it
+was moved, that the amendments made in it by the Lords should be read;
+but as it had become a money-bill in consequence of the bounties to be
+granted, and as new regulations were to be incorporated in it, it was
+thought proper that it should be wholly done away. Accordingly Sir
+William Dolben moved, that the further consideration of it should be put
+off till that day three months. This having been agreed upon, he then
+moved for leave to bring in a new bill. This was accordingly introduced,
+and an additional clause was inserted in it, relative to bounties, by
+Mr. Pitt. But on the second reading, that no obstacle might be omitted
+which could legally be thrown in the way of its progress, petitions were
+presented against it, both by the Liverpool merchants and the agent for
+the island of Jamaica, under the pretence that it was a new bill. Their
+petitions, however, were rejected, and it was committed and passed
+through its regular stages, and sent up to the Lords.
+
+On its arrival there on the 5th of July, petitions from London and
+Liverpool still followed it. The prayer of these was against the general
+tendency of it, but it was solicited also that counsel might be heard in
+a particular case; the solicitation was complied with; after which the
+bill was read a second time, and ordered to be committed.
+
+On the 7th, when it was taken next into consideration, two other
+petitions were presented against it. But here so many objections were
+made to the clauses of it as they then stood, and such new matter
+suggested that the Duke of Richmond, who was a strenuous supporter of
+it, thought it best to move that the committee then sitting should be
+deferred till that day seven-night, in order to give time for another
+more perfect to originate in the lower house.
+
+This motion having been acceded to, Sir William Dolben introduced a new
+one for the third time into the Commons. This included the suggestions
+which had been made in the Lords. It included also a regulation, on the
+motion of Mr. Sheridan, that no surgeon should be employed as such in
+the slave-vessels, except he had a testimonial that he had passed a
+proper examination at Surgeon's Hall. The amendments were all then
+agreed to, and the bill was passed through its several stages.
+
+On the 10th of July, being now fully amended it came for a third time
+before the Lords; but it was no sooner brought forward than it met with
+the same opposition as it had experienced before. Two new petitions
+appeared against it; one from a certain class of persons in Liverpool,
+and another from Miles Peter Andrews, Esq., stating that if it passed
+into a law it would injure the sale of his gunpowder, and that he had
+rendered great services to the government during the last war, by his
+provision of that article. But here the Lord Chancellor Thurlow reserved
+himself for an effort, which, by occasioning only a day's delay, would,
+in that particular period of the session have totally prevented the
+passing of the bill. He suggested certain amendments for consideration
+and discussion which, if they had agreed upon, must have been carried
+again to the lower House, and sanctioned there before the bill could
+have been complete. But it appeared afterwards, that there would have
+been no time for the latter proceeding. Earl Stanhope, therefore,
+pressed this circumstance peculiarly upon the lords who were present. He
+observed that the king was to dismiss the parliament next day, and
+therefore they must adopt the bill as it stood, or reject it altogether.
+There was no alternative, and no time was to be lost: accordingly, he
+moved for an immediate division on the first of the amendments proposed
+by Lord Thurlow. This having taken place, it was negatived. The other
+amendments shared the same fate; and thus, at length, passed through the
+Upper House, as through an ordeal as it were of fire, the first bill
+that ever put fetters upon that barbarous and destructive monster, the
+Slave Trade.
+
+The next day, or on Friday, July the 11th, the king gave his assent to
+it, and, as Lord Stanhope had previously asserted in the House of Lords,
+concluded the session.
+
+While the legislature was occupied in the consideration of this bill,
+the lords of the council continued their examinations, that they might
+collect as much light as possible previously to the general agitation of
+the question in the next session of parliament. Among others I underwent
+an examination: I gave my testimony first, relative to many of the
+natural productions of Africa, of which I produced the specimens. These
+were such as I had collected in the course of my journey to Bristol and
+Liverpool, and elsewhere. I explained, secondly, the loss and usage of
+seamen in the Slave Trade. To substantiate certain points, which
+belonged to this branch of the subject, I left several depositions and
+articles of agreement for the examination of the council. With respect
+to others, as it would take a long time to give all the data upon which
+calculations had been made, and the manner of making them, I was desired
+to draw up a statement of particulars, and to send it to the council at
+a future time. I left also depositions with them, relative to certain
+instances of the mode of procuring and treating slaves.
+
+The committee also for effecting the abolition of the Slave Trade
+continued their attention, during this period, towards the promotion of
+the different objects which came within the range of the institution.
+
+They added the Rev. Dr. Coombe, in consequence of the great increase of
+their business, to the list of their members.
+
+They voted thanks to Mr. Hughes, vicar of Ware, in Hertfordshire, for
+his excellent answer to Harris's _Scriptural Researches on the Licitness
+of the Slave Trade_, and they enrolled him among their honorary and
+corresponding members. Also thanks to William Roscoe, Esq., for his
+Answer to the same. Mr. Roscoe had not affixed his name to this pamphlet
+any more than to his poem of _The Wrongs of Africa_; but he made himself
+known to the committee as the author of both. Also thanks to William
+Smith and Henry Beaufoy, Esqrs., for having so successfully exposed the
+evidence offered by the slave merchants against the bill of Sir William
+Dolben, and for having drawn out of it so many facts, all making for
+their great object the abolition of the Slave Trade.
+
+As the great question was to be discussed in the approaching sessions,
+it was moved in the committee to consider of the propriety of sending
+persons to Africa and the West Indies, who should obtain information
+relative to the different branches of the system as they existed in each
+of these countries, in order that they might be able to give their
+testimony, from their own experience, before one or both of the houses
+of parliament, as it might be judged proper. This proposition was
+discussed at two or three several meetings. It was, however, finally
+rejected, and principally on the following grounds--First, It was
+obvious that persons sent out upon such an errand would be exposed to
+such dangers from varying causes, that it was not improbably that both
+they and their testimony might be lost. Secondly, Such persons would be
+obliged to have recourse to falsehoods, that is, to conceal or
+misrepresent the objects of their destination, that they might get their
+intelligence with safety; which falsehoods the committee could not
+countenance. To which it was added, that few persons would go to these
+places, except they were handsomely rewarded for their trouble; but this
+reward would lessen the value of their evidence, as it would afford a
+handle to the planters and slave-merchants to say that they had been
+bribed.
+
+Another circumstance which came before the committee was the
+following:--Many arguments were afloat at this time relative to the
+great impolicy of abolishing the Slave Trade, the principal of which
+was, that, if the English abandoned it, other foreign nations would take
+it up; and thus, while they gave up certain national profits themselves,
+the great cause of humanity would not be benefited, nor would any moral
+good be done by the measure. Now there was a presumption that, by means
+of the society instituted in Paris, the French nation might be awakened
+to this great subject; and that the French government might in
+consequence, as well as upon other considerations, be induced to favour
+the general feeling upon this occasion. But there was no reason to
+conclude, either than any other maritime people, who had been engaged in
+the Slave Trade, would relinquish it, or that any other, who had not yet
+been engaged in it, would not begin it when our countrymen should give
+it up. The consideration of these circumstances occupied the attention
+of the committee; and as Dr. Spaarman, who was said to have been
+examined by the privy council, was returning home, it was thought
+advisable to consider whether it would not be proper for the committee
+to select certain of their own books on the subject of the Slave Trade,
+and send them by him, accompanied by a letter, to the King of Sweden, in
+which they should entreat his consideration of this powerful argument
+which now stood in the way of the cause of humanity, with a view that,
+as one of the princes of Europe, he might contribute to obviate it, by
+preventing his own subjects, in case of the dereliction of this commerce
+by ourselves, from embarking in it. The matter having been fully
+considered, it was resolved that the proposed measure would be proper,
+and it was accordingly adapted. By a letter received afterwards from Dr.
+Spaarman, it appeared that both the letter and the books had been
+delivered, and received graciously; and that he was authorized to say,
+that, unfortunately, in consequence of those hereditary possessions
+which had devolved upon His Majesty, he was obliged to confess that he
+was the sovereign of an island which had been principally peopled by
+African slaves, but that he had been frequently mindful of their hard
+case. With respect to the Slave Trade, he never heard of an instance in
+which the merchants of his own native realm had embarked in it; and as
+they had preserved their character pure in this respect, he would do all
+he could that it should not be sullied in the eyes of the generous
+English nation, by taking up, in the case which had been pointed out to
+him, such an odious concern.
+
+By this time I had finished my _Essay on the Impolicy of the Slave
+Trade_, which I composed from materials collected chiefly during my
+journey to Bristol, Liverpool, and Lancaster. These materials I had
+admitted with great caution and circumspection; indeed I admitted none
+for which I could not bring official and other authentic documents, or
+living evidences if necessary, whose testimony could not reasonably be
+denied; and when I gave them to the world, I did it under the impression
+that I ought to give them as scrupulously as if I were to be called upon
+to substantiate them upon oath. It was of peculiar moment that this book
+should make its appearance at this time. First, Because it would give
+the lords of the council, who were then sitting, an opportunity of
+seeing many important facts, and of inquiring into their authenticity;
+and it might suggest to them, also, some new points, or such as had not
+fallen within the limits of the arrangement they had agreed upon for
+their examinations on this subject: and secondly, Because, as the
+members of the House of Commons were to take the question into
+consideration early in the next sessions, it would give them, also, new
+light and information upon it before this period. Accordingly the
+committee ordered two thousand copies of it to be struck off, for these
+and other objects; and though the contents of it were most diligently
+sifted by the different opponents of the cause, they never even made an
+attempt to answer it. It continued, on the other hand, during the
+inquiry of the legislature, to afford the basis or grounds upon which to
+examine evidences on the political part of the subject; and evidences
+thus examined continued in their turn to establish it.
+
+Among the other books ordered to be printed by the committee within the
+period now under our consideration, were a new edition of two thousand
+of the DEAN OF MIDDLEHAM'S _Letter_, and another of three thousand of
+FALCONBBIDGE'S _Account of the Slave Trade_.
+
+The committee continued to keep ups, during the same period, a
+communication with many of their old correspondents, whose names have
+been already mentioned. But they received, also, letters from others,
+who had not hitherto addressed them: namely, from Ellington Wright, of
+Erith; Dr. Franklin, of Philadelphia; Eustace Kentish, Esq., high
+sheriff for the county of Huntingdon; Governor Bouchier; the Reverend
+Charles Symmons, of Haverfordwest; and from John York and William
+Downes, Esquires, high sheriffs for the counties of York and Hereford.
+
+A letter, also, was read in this interval from Mr. Evans, a dissenting
+clergyman, of Bristol, stating that the elders of several Baptist
+churches, forming the western Baptist association, who had met at,
+Portsmouth Common, had resolved to recommend it to the ministers and
+members of the same, to unite with the committee in the promotion of the
+great object of their institution.
+
+Another from Mr. Andrew Irvin, of the Island of Grenada, in which he
+confirmed the wretched situation of many of the slaves there, and in
+which he gave the outlines of a plan for bettering their condition, as
+well as that of those in the other islands.
+
+Another from I.L. Wynne, Esq., of Jamaica. In this he gave an afflicting
+account of the suffering and unprotected state of the slaves there,
+which it was high time to rectify. He congratulated the committee on
+their institution, which he thought would tend to promote so desirable
+an end; but desired them not to stop short of the total abolition of the
+Slave Trade, as no other measure would prove effectual against the evils
+of which he complained. This trade, he said, was utterly unnecessary, as
+his own plantation, on which his slaves had increased rapidly by
+population, and others which he knew to be similarly circumstanced,
+would abundantly testify. He concluded by promising to give the
+committee such information from time to time as might be useful on this
+important subject.
+
+The session of parliament having closed, the committee thought it right
+to make a report to the public: in which they gave an account of the
+great progress of their cause since the last; of the state in which they
+then were; and of the unjustifiable conduct of their opponents, who
+industriously misrepresented their views, but particularly by
+attributing to them the design of abolishing slavery: and they concluded
+by exhorting their friends not to relax their endeavours on account of
+favourable appearances; but to persevere, as if nothing had been done,
+under the pleasing hope of an honourable triumph.
+
+And now having given the substance of the labours of the committee from
+its formation to the present time, I cannot conclude this chapter
+without giving to the worthy members of it that tribute of affectionate
+and grateful praise, which is due to them for their exertions in having
+forwarded the great cause which was intrusted to their care. And this I
+can do with more propriety, because, having been so frequently absent
+from them when they were engaged in the pursuit of this their duty, I
+cannot be liable to the suspicion, that in bestowing commendation upon
+them I am bestowing it upon myself. From about the end of May, 1787, to
+the middle of July, 1788, they had no less than fifty-one committees.
+These generally occupied them from about six in the evening till about
+eleven at night. In the intervals between the committees they were often
+occupied, having each of them some object committed to his charge. It is
+remarkable, too, that though they were all, except one, engaged in,
+business or trade, and though they had the same calls as other men for
+innocent recreation, and the same interruptions of their health, there
+were individuals who were not absent more than five or six times within
+this period. In the course of the thirteen months, during which they had
+exercised this public trust, they had printed, and afterwards
+distributed, not at random, but judiciously, and through, respectable
+channels, (besides 26,526 reports, accounts of debates in parliament,
+and other small papers,) no less than 51,432 pamphlets, or books.
+
+Nor, was the effect, produced within this short period otherwise than
+commensurate with the efforts used. In May, 1787, the only public notice
+taken of this great cause was by this committee of twelve individuals,
+of whom all were little known to the world except Mr. Granville Sharp.
+But in July, 1788, it had attracted the notice of several distinguished
+individuals in France and Germany; and in our own country it had come
+within the notice of the government, and a branch of it had undergone a
+parliamentary discussion and restraint. It had arrested, also, the
+attention of the nation, and it had produced a kind of holy flame, or
+enthusiasm, and this to a degree and to an extent never before
+witnessed. Of the purity of this flame no better proof can be offered,
+than that even Bishops deigned to address an obscure committee,
+consisting principally of Quakers; and that Churchmen and Dissenters
+forgot their difference of religious opinions, and joined their hands,
+all over the kingdom, in its support.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+Continuation from June 1788 to July 1789.--Author travels to collect
+further evidence; great difficulties in obtaining it; forms committees
+on his tour.--Privy council resume the examinations; inspect cabinet
+of African productions; obliged to leave many of the witnesses in
+behalf of the abolition unexamined; prepare their report--Labours of
+the committee in the interim.--Proceedings of the planters and
+others.--Report laid on the table of the House of
+Commons.--Introduction of the question, and debate there; twelve
+propositions deduced from the report and reserved for future
+discussion; day of discussion arrives; opponents refuse to argue from
+the report; require new evidence; this granted and introduced; further
+consideration of the subject deferred to the next session.--Renewal of
+Sir William Dolben's bill.--Death and character of Ramsay.
+
+
+Matters had now become serious. The gauntlet had been thrown down and
+accepted. The combatants had taken their stations, and the contest was
+to be renewed, which was to be decided soon on the great theatre of the
+nation. The committee by the very act of their institution had
+pronounced the Slave Trade to be criminal. They, on the other hand, who
+were concerned in it, had denied the charge. It became the one to prove,
+and the other to refute it, or to fall in the ensuing session.
+
+The committee, in this perilous situation, were anxious to find out such
+other persons as might become proper evidences before the privy council.
+They had hitherto sent there only nine or ten, and they had then only
+another, whom they could count upon for this purpose, in their view. The
+proposal of sending persons to Africa, and the West Indies, who might
+come back and report what they had witnessed, had already been
+negatived. The question then was, what they were to do. Upon this they
+deliberated, and the result was an application to me to undertake a
+journey to different parts of the kingdom for this purpose.
+
+When this determination was made, I was at Teston, writing a long letter
+to the privy council on the ill usage and mortality of the seamen
+employed in the Slave Trade, which it had been previously agreed should
+be received as evidence there. I thought it proper, however, before I
+took my departure, to form a system of questions upon the general
+subject. These I divided into six tables. The first related to the
+productions of Africa, and the dispositions and manners of the natives.
+The second, to the methods of reducing them to slavery. The third, to
+the manner of bringing them to the ships, their value, the medium of
+exchange, and other circumstances. The fourth, to their transportation.
+The fifth, to their treatment in the colonies. The sixth, to the seamen
+employed in the trade. These tables contained together one hundred and
+forty-five questions. My idea was that they should be printed on a small
+sheet of paper, which should be folded up in seven or eight leaves, of
+the length and breadth of a small almanac, and then be sent in franks to
+our different correspondents. These, when they had them, might examine
+persons capable of giving evidence, who might live in their
+neighbourhoods, or fall in their way, and return us their examinations
+by letter.
+
+The committee having approved and printed the tables of questions, I
+began my tour. I had selected the southern counties from Kent to
+Cornwall for it. I had done this, because these included the great
+stations of the ships of war in ordinary; and as these were all under
+the superintendence of Sir Charles Middleton, as comptroller of the
+navy, I could get an introduction to those on board them. Secondly,
+because sea-faring people, when they retire from a marine life, usually
+settle in some town or village upon the coast.
+
+Of this tour I shall not give the reader any very particular account. I
+shall mention only those things which are most worthy of his notice in
+it. At Poole, in Dorsetshire, I laid the foundation of a committee, to
+act in harmony with that of London for the promotion of the cause. Moses
+Neave, of the respectable society of the Quakers, was the chairman;
+Thomas Bell, the secretary; and Ellis B. Metford and the Reverend Mr.
+Davis and others the committee. This was the third committee which had
+been instituted in the country for this purpose. That at Bristol, under
+Mr. Joseph Harford as chairman, and Mr. Lunell as secretary, had been
+the first: and that at Manchester, under Mr. Thomas Walker as chairman,
+and Mr. Samuel Jackson as secretary, had been the second.
+
+As Poole was a great place for carrying on the trade to Newfoundland, I
+determined to examine the assertion of the Earl of Sandwich in the House
+of Lords, when he said, in the debate on Sir William Dolben's bill, that
+the Slave Trade was not more fatal to seamen than the Newfoundland and
+some others. This assertion I knew at the time to be erroneous, as far
+as my own researches had been concerned: for out of twenty-four vessels,
+which had sailed out of the port of Bristol in that employ, only two
+sailors were upon the dead list. In sixty vessels from Poole, I found
+but four lost. At Dartmouth, where I went afterwards on purpose, I found
+almost a similar result. On conversing, however, with Governor
+Holdsworth, I learnt that the year 1786 had been more fatal than any
+other in this trade. I learnt that in consequence of extraordinary
+storms and hurricanes, no less than five sailors had died and twenty-one
+had been drowned in eighty-three vessels from that port. Upon this
+statement I determined to look into the muster-rolls of the trade there
+for two or three years together. I began by accident with the year 1769,
+and I went on to the end of 1772. About eighty vessels on an average had
+sailed thence in each of these years. Taking the loss in these years,
+and compounding it with that in the fatal year, three sailors had been
+lost; but taking it in these four years by themselves, only two had been
+lost in twenty-four vessels so employed. On comparison with the Slave
+Trade, the result would be, that two vessels to Africa would destroy
+more seamen than eighty-three sailing to Newfoundland. There was this
+difference also to be noted, that the loss in the one trade was
+generally by the weather or by accident, but in the other by cruel
+treatment or disease; and that they who went out in a declining state of
+health in the one, came home generally recovered; whereas they, who went
+out robust in the other, came home in a shattered condition.
+
+At Plymouth I laid the foundation of another committee. The late William
+Cookworthy, the late John Prideaux, and James Fox, all of the society of
+the Quakers, and Mr. George Leach, Samuel Northcote and John Saunders,
+had a principal share in forming it. Sir William Ellford was chosen
+chairman.
+
+From Plymouth I journeyed on to Falmouth, and from thence to Exeter,
+where having meetings with the late Mr. Samuel Milford, the late Mr.
+George Manning, the Reverend James Manning, Thomas Sparkes, and others,
+a desire became manifest among them of establishing a committee there.
+This was afterwards effected; and Mr. Milford, who at a general meeting
+of the inhabitants of Exeter, on the 10th of June, on this great
+subject, had been called by those present to the chair, was appointed
+the chairman of it.
+
+With respect to evidence, which was the great object of this tour, I
+found myself often very unpleasantly situated in collecting it. I heard
+of many persons capable of giving it to our advantage, to whom I could
+get no introduction. I had to go after these many miles out of my
+established route. Not knowing me, they received me coldly, and even
+suspiciously; while I fell in with others, who, considering themselves,
+on account of their concerns and connexions, as our opponents, treated
+me in an uncivil manner.
+
+But the difficulties and disappointments in other respects which I
+experienced in this tour,--even where I had an introduction, and where
+the parties were not interested in the continuance of the Slave
+Trade,--were greater than people in general would have imagined. One
+would have thought, considering the great enthusiasm of the nation on
+this important subject, that they who could have given satisfactory
+information upon it, would have rejoiced to do it. But I found it
+otherwise; and this frequently to my sorrow. There was an aversion in
+persons to appear before such a tribunal as they conceived the privy
+council to be. With men of shy or timid character this operated as an
+insuperable barrier in their way. But it operated more or less upon all.
+It was surprising to see what little circumstances affected many. When I
+took out my pen and ink to put down the information which a person was
+giving me, he became evidently embarrassed and frightened. He began to
+excuse himself from staying, by alleging that he had nothing more to
+communicate, and he took himself away as quickly as he could with
+decency. The sight of the pen and ink had lost me so many good
+evidences, that I was obliged wholly to abandon the use of them, and to
+betake myself to other means. I was obliged for the future to commit my
+tables of questions to memory; and endeavour by practice to put down,
+after the examination of a person, such answers as he had given me to
+each of them.
+
+Others went off, because it happened that immediately on my interview, I
+acquainted them with the nature of my errand and solicited their
+attendance in London. Conceiving that I had no right to ask them such a
+favour, or terrified at the abruptness and apparent awfulness of my
+request some of them gave me an immediate denial, which they would never
+afterwards retract. I began to perceive in time that it was only by the
+most delicate management that I could get forward on these occasions. I
+resolved, therefore, for the future, except in particular cases, that
+when I should be introduced to persons who had a competent knowledge of
+this trade, I would talk with them upon it as upon any ordinary subject,
+and then leave them without saying anything about their becoming
+evidences. I would take care, however, to commit all their conversation
+to writing when it was over; and I would then try to find out that
+person among their relations or friends, who could apply to them for
+this purpose, with the least hazard of a refusal.
+
+There were others, also, who, though they were not so much impressed by
+the considerations mentioned, yet objected to give their public
+testimony. Those whose livelihood, or promotion, or expectations, were
+dependent upon the government of the country, were generally backward on
+these occasions. Though they thought they discovered in the
+parliamentary conduct of Mr. Pitt, a bias in favour of the cause, they
+knew to a certainty that the Lord Chancellor Thurlow was against it.
+They conceived, therefore, that the administration was at least divided
+upon the question, and they were fearful of being called upon, lest they
+should give offence, and thus injure their prospects in life. This
+objection was very prevalent in that part of the kingdom which I had
+selected for my tour.
+
+The reader can hardly conceive how my mind was agitated and distressed
+on these different accounts. To have travelled more than two months,--to
+have seen many who could have materially served our cause,--and to have
+lost most of them,--was very trying. And though it is true that I
+applied a remedy, I was not driven to the adoption of it, till I had
+performed more than half my tour. Suffice it to say, that after having
+travelled upwards of sixteen hundred miles backwards and forwards, and
+having conversed with forty-seven persons, who were capable of promoting
+the cause by their evidence, I could only prevail upon nine, by all the
+interest I could make, to be examined.
+
+On my return to London, whither I had been called up by the committee,
+to take upon me the superintendence of the evidence, which the privy
+council was now ready again to hear, I found my brother: he was then a
+young officer in the navy; and as I knew he felt as warmly as I did in
+this great cause, I prevailed upon him to go to Havre de Grace, the
+great slave-port in France, where he might make his observations for two
+or three months, and then report what he had seen and heard; so that we
+might have some one to counteract any false statement of things, which
+might be made relative to the subject in that quarter.
+
+At length the examinations were resumed, and with them the contest, in
+which our own reputation and the fate of our cause were involved. The
+committee for the abolition had discovered, one or two willing evidences
+during my absence; and Mr. Wilberforce, who was now recovered from his
+severe indisposition, had found one or two others. These, added to my
+own, made a respectable body; but we had sent no more than four or five
+of these to the council, when the king's illness unfortunately stopped
+our career. For nearly five weeks between the middle of November and
+January, the examinations were interrupted or put off, so that at the
+latter period we began to fear, that there would be scarcely time to
+hear the rest; for not only the privy council report was to be printed,
+but the contest itself was to be decided by  the evidence contained in
+it, in the existing session.
+
+The examinations, however, went on; but they went on only slowly, being
+still subject to interruption from the same unfortunate cause. Among
+others I offered my mite of information again. I wished the council to
+see more of my African productions and manufactures, that they might
+really know what Africa was capable of affording, instead of the Slave
+Trade; and that they might make a proper estimate of the genius and
+talents of the natives. The samples which I had collected, had been
+obtained by great labour, and at no inconsiderable expense: for whenever
+I had notice that a vessel had arrived immediately from that continent,
+I never hesitated to go, unless under the most pressing engagements
+elsewhere, even as far as Bristol, if I could pick up but a single new
+article. The lords having consented, I selected several things for their
+inspection out of my box,--of the contents of which the following
+account may not be unacceptable to the reader:--
+
+The first division of the box consisted of woods of about four inches
+square, all polished. Among these were mahogany of five different sorts,
+tulip-wood, satin-wood, cam-wood, bar-wood, fustic, black and yellow
+ebony, palm-tree, mangrove, calabash, and date. There were seven woods,
+of which the native names were remembered; three of these, Tumiah,
+Samain, and Jimlake, were of a yellow colour; Acajou was of a beautiful
+deep crimson; Bork and Quelle were apparently fit for cabinet work; and
+Benten was the wood of which the natives made their canoes. Of the,
+various other woods the names had been forgotten, nor were they known in
+England at all. One of them was of a fine purple; and from two others,
+upon which the privy council had caused experiments to be made, a strong
+yellow, a deep orange, and a flesh-colour were extracted.
+
+The second, division included ivory and musk; four species of pepper,
+the long, the black, the Cayenne, and the Malaguetta; three species of
+gum, namely, Senegal, Copal, and ruber astringens; cinnamon, rice,
+tobacco, indigo, white and Nankin cotton, Guinea corn, and millet; three
+species of beans, of which two were used for food, and the other for
+dyeing orange; two species of tamarinds, one for food, and the other to
+give whiteness to the teeth; pulse, seeds, and fruits of various kinds,
+some of the latter of which Dr. Spaarman had pronounced; from a trial
+during his residence in Africa, to be peculiarly valuable as drugs.
+
+The third division contained an African loom, and an African spindle
+with spun cotton round it; cloths of cotton of various kinds made by the
+natives, some white, but others dyed by them of different colours, and
+others in which they had interwoven European silk; cloths and bags made
+of grass, and fancifully coloured; ornaments made of the same materials;
+ropes made from a species of aloes and others, remarkably strong, from
+glass and straw; fine string made from the fibres of the roots of trees;
+soap of two kinds; one of which was formed from an earthy substance;
+pipe-bowls made of clay, and of a brown red; one of these, which came
+from the village of Dakard, was beautifully ornamented by black devices
+burnt in, and was besides highly glazed; another brought from Galam, was
+made of earth, which was richly impregnated with little particles of
+gold; trinkets made by the natives from their own gold; knives and
+daggers made by them from our bar-iron; and various other articles, such
+as bags, sandals, dagger-cases, quivers, grisgris, all made of leather
+of their own manufacture, and dyed of various colours, and ingeniously
+sewed together.
+
+The fourth division consisted of the thumb-screw, speculum oris, and
+chains and shackles of different kinds, collected at Liverpool. To these
+were added, iron neck-collars, and other instruments of punishment and
+confinement used in the West Indies, and collected at other places. The
+instrument also, by which Charles Horseler was mentioned to have been
+killed, in a former chapter, was to be seen among these.
+
+We were now advanced far into February, when we were alarmed by the
+intelligence that the lords of the council were going to prepare their
+report: At this time we had sent but few persons to them to examine, in
+comparison with our opponents, and we had yet eighteen to introduce: for
+answers had come into my tables of questions from several places, and
+persons had been pointed out to us by our correspondents, who had
+increased our list of evidences to this number. I wrote therefore to
+them, at the desire of the committee for the abolition, and gave them
+the names of the eighteen, and requested also, that they would order,
+for their own inspection; certain muster-rolls of vessels from Poole and
+Dartmouth, that they might be convinced that the objection which the
+Earl of Sandwich had made in the House of Lords, against the abolition
+of the Slave Trade, had no solid foundation. In reply to my first
+request they informed me, that it was impossible, in the advanced state
+of the session, (it being then the middle of March,) that the
+examinations of so many could be taken; but I was at liberty, in
+conjunction with the Bishop of London, to select eight for this purpose.
+This occasioned me to address them again; and I then found, to my
+surprise and sorrow, that even this last number was to be diminished;
+for I was informed in writing, "that the Bishop of London having laid my
+last letter before their lordships, they had agreed to meet on the
+Saturday next, and on the Tuesday following, for the purposes of
+receiving the evidence of some of the gentlemen named in it. And it was
+their lordships' desire that I would give notice to any three of them
+(whose information I might consider the most material) of the above
+determination, that they might attend the committee accordingly."
+
+This answer, considering the difficulties we had found in collecting a
+body of evidence, and the critical situation in which we were, was
+peculiarly distressing; but we had no remedy left us, nor could we
+reasonably complain. Three therefore were selected, and they were sent
+to deliver their testimony on their arrival in town.
+
+But before the last of these had left the council room, who should come
+up to me but Dr. Arnold? He had but lately arrived at Bristol from
+Africa; and having heard from our friends there that we had been daily
+looking for him, he had come to us in London. He and Mr. Gardiner were
+the two surgeons, as mentioned in the former chapter, who had promised
+me, when I was in Bristol, in the year 1787, that they would keep a
+journal of facts during the voyages they were then going to perform.
+They had both kept this promise. Gardiner, I found, had died upon the
+coast; and his journal, having been discovered at his death, had been
+buried with him in great triumph. But Arnold had survived, and he came
+now to offer us his services in the cause.
+
+As it was a pity that such correct information as that taken down in
+writing upon the spot should be lost (for all the other evidences,
+except Dr. Spaarman and Mr. Wadstrom, had spoken from their memory
+only), I made all the interest I could to procure a hearing for Mr.
+Arnold. Pleading now for the examination of him only, and under these
+particular circumstances, I was attended to. It was consented, in
+consequence of the little time which was now left for preparing and
+printing the report, that I should make out his evidence from his
+journal under certain heads. This I did. Mr. Arnold swore to the truth
+of it, when so drawn up, before Edward Montague, Esquire, a master in
+Chancery. He then delivered the paper in which it was contained to the
+lords of the council, who, on receiving it, read it throughout, and then
+questioned him upon it.
+
+At this time, also, my brother returned with accounts and papers
+relative to the Slave Trade from Havre de Grace; but as I had pledged
+myself to offer no other person to be examined, his evidence was lost.
+Thus, after all the pains we had taken, and in a contest, too, on the
+success of which our own reputation and the fate of Africa depended, we
+were obliged to fight the battle with sixteen less than we could have
+brought into the field; while our opponents, on the other hand, on
+account of their superior advantages, had mustered all their forces, not
+having omitted a single man.
+
+I do not know of any period of my life in which I suffered so much, both
+in body and mind, as from the time of resuming these public inquiries by
+the privy council, to the time when they were closed. For I had my
+weekly duty to attend at the committee for the abolition during this
+interval. I had to take down the examinations of all the evidences who
+came to London, and to make certain copies of these. I had to summon
+these to town, and to make provision against all accidents; and here I
+was often troubled, by means of circumstances, which unexpectedly
+occurred, lest, when committees of the council had been purposely
+appointed to hear them, they should not be forthcoming at the time. I
+had also a new and extensive correspondence to keep up; for the tables
+of questions which had been sent down to our correspondents, brought
+letters almost innumerable on this subject, and they were always
+addressed to me. These not only required answers of themselves, but as
+they usually related to persons capable of giving their testimony, and
+contained the particulars of what they could state, they occasioned
+fresh letters to be written to others. Hence the writing often of ten or
+twelve daily became necessary.
+
+But the contents of these letters afforded the circumstances, which gave
+birth to so much suffering. They contained usually some affecting tale
+of woe. At Bristol my feelings had been harassed by the cruel treatment
+of the seamen, which had come to my knowledge there: but now I was
+doomed to see this treatment over again in many other melancholy
+instances; and, additionally, to take in the various sufferings of the
+unhappy slaves. These accounts I could seldom get time to read till late
+in the evening, and sometimes not till midnight, when the letters
+containing them were to be answered. The effect of these accounts was in
+some instances to overwhelm me for a time in tears, and in others to
+produce a vivid indignation, which affected my whole frame. Recovering
+from these, I walked up and down the room: I felt fresh vigour, and made
+new determinations of perpetual warfare against this impious trade. I
+implored strength that I might succeed. I then sat down, and continued
+my work as long as my wearied eyes would permit me to see. Having been
+agitated in this manner, I went to bed; but my rest was frequently
+broken by the visions which floated before me. When I awoke, these
+renewed themselves to me, and they flitted about with me for the
+remainder of the day. Thus I was kept continually harassed: my mind was
+confined to one gloomy and heart-breaking subject for months. It had no
+respite, and my health began now materially to suffer.
+
+But the contents of these letters were particularly grievous, on account
+of the severe labours which they necessarily entailed upon me in other
+ways than those which have been mentioned. It was my duty, while the
+privy council examinations went on, not only to attend to all the
+evidence which was presented to us by our correspondents, but to find
+out and select the best. The happiness of millions depended upon it.
+Hence I was often obliged to travel during these examinations, in order
+to converse with those who had been pointed out to us as capable of
+giving their testimony; and, that no time might be lost, to do this in
+the night. More than two hundred miles in a week were sometimes passed
+over on these occasions.
+
+The disappointments too, which I frequently experienced in journeys,
+increased the poignancy of the, suffering, which arose from a
+contemplation of the melancholy cases which I had thus travelled to
+bring forward to the public view. The reader at present can have no idea
+of these. I have been sixty miles to visit a person, of whom I had
+heard, not only as possessing important knowledge, but as espousing our
+opinions on this subject. I have at length seen him. He has applauded my
+pursuit at our first interview. He has told me, in the course of our
+conversation, that neither my own pen, nor that of any other man, could
+describe adequately the horrors, of the Slave Trade, horrors which he
+himself had witnessed. He has exhorted me to perseverance in this noble
+cause. Could I have wished for a more favourable reception!--But mark
+the issue. He was the nearest relation of a rich person concerned in the
+traffic; and if he were to come forward with his evidence publicly, he
+should ruin all his expectations from that Quarter. In the same week I
+have visited another at a still greater distance. I have met with
+similar applause. I have heard him describe scenes of misery which he
+had witnessed, and on the relation of which he himself almost wept. But
+mark the issue again.--"I am a surgeon," says he; "through that window
+you see a spacious house; it is occupied by a West Indian. The medical
+attendance upon his family is of considerable importance to the temporal
+interests of mine. If I give you my evidence I lose his patronage. At
+the house above him lives a East Indian. The two families are connected:
+I fear, if I lose the support of one, I shall lose that of the other
+also: but I will give you privately all the intelligence in my power."
+
+The reader may now conceive the many miserable hours I must have spent,
+after such visits, in returning home; and how grievously my heart must
+have been afflicted by these cruel disappointments, but more
+particularly where they arose from causes inferior to those which have
+been now mentioned, or from little frivolous excuses, or idle and
+unfounded conjectures, unworthy of beings expected to fill a moral
+station in life. Yes, O man! often in these solitary journeyings have I
+exclaimed against the baseness of thy nature, when reflecting on the
+little paltry considerations which have smothered thy benevolence, and
+hindered thee from succouring an oppressed brother. And yet, on a
+further view of things, I have reasoned myself into a kinder feeling
+towards thee. For I have been obliged to consider ultimately, that there
+were both lights and shades in the human character; and that, if the bad
+part of our nature was visible on these occasions, the nobler part of it
+ought not to be forgotten. While I passed a censure upon those, who were
+backward in serving this great cause of humanity and justice, how many
+did I know, who were toiling in the support of it! I drew also this
+consolation from my reflections, that I had done my duty; that I had
+left nothing untried or undone; that amidst all these disappointments I
+had collected information, which might be useful at a future time; and
+that such disappointments were almost inseparable from the prosecution
+of a cause of such magnitude, and where the interests of so many were
+concerned:--
+
+Having now given a general account of my own proceedings, I shall state
+those of the committee; or show how they contributed, by fulfilling the
+duties of their several departments, to promote the cause in the
+interim.
+
+In the first place they completed the rules, or code of laws, for their
+own government.
+
+They continued to adopt and circulate books, that they might still
+enlighten the public mind on the subject, and preserve it interested in
+favour of their institution. They kept the press indeed almost
+constantly going for this purpose. They printed, within the period
+mentioned, RAMSAY'S, _Address on the proposed Bill for the Abolition;
+The Speech of Henry Beaufoy, Esq., on Sir William Dolben's Bill_, of
+which an extract is given in Chap. xxiii.; _Notes by a Planter on the
+two Reports from the Committee of the Honourable House of Assembly of
+Jamaica_; _Observations on the Slave Trade_ by Mr. Wadstrom; and
+DICKSON'S _Letters on Slavery._ These were all new publications. To
+those they added others of less note, with new editions of the old.
+
+They voted their thanks to the Rev. Mr. Clifford, for his excellent
+Sermon on the Slave Trade; to the pastor and congregation of the Baptist
+church at Maze Pond, Southwark, for their liberal subscription; and to
+John Barton, one of their own members, for the services he had rendered
+them. The latter, having left his residence in town for one in the
+country, solicited permission to resign, and hence this mark of
+approbation was given to him. He was continued also as an honorary and
+corresponding member.
+
+They elected David Hartley and Richard Sharpe, Esqs., into their own
+body, and Alexander Jaffray, Esq., the Rev. Charles Symmons, of
+Haverfordwest, and the Rev. T. Burgess (afterwards bishop of Salisbury),
+as honorary and corresponding members. The latter had written
+_Considerations on the Abolition of Slavery and the Slave Trade, upon
+grounds of natural, religious, and political Duty_, which had been of
+great service to the cause.
+
+Of the new correspondents of the committee within this period I may
+first mention Henry Taylor, of North Shields; William Proud, of Hull;
+the Rev. T. Gisborne, of Yoxall Lodge; and William Ellford, Esq., of
+Plymouth. The latter as chairman of the Plymouth committee, sent up for
+inspection an engraving of a plan and section of a slave-ship, in which
+the bodies of the slaves were seen stowed in the proportion of rather
+less than one to a ton. This happy invention gave all those who saw it a
+much better idea, than they could otherwise have had, of the horrors of
+their transportation, and contributed greatly, as will appear,
+afterwards, to impress the public in favour of our cause.
+
+The next, whom I shall mention, was C.L. Evans, Esq., of West Bromwich;
+the Rev. T. Clarke, of Hull; S.P. Wolferstan, of Stratford, near
+Tamworth; Edmund Lodge, Esq., of Halifax; the Rev. Caleb Rotheram, of
+Kendal; and Mr. Campbell Haliburton, of Edinburgh. The news which Mr.
+Haliburton sent was very agreeable. He informed us that, in consequence
+of the great exertions of Mr. Alison, an institution had been formed in
+Edinburgh, similar to that in London, which would take all Scotland
+under its care and management, as far as related to this great subject.
+He mentioned Lord Gardenston as the chairman; Sir William Forbes as the
+deputy-chairman; himself as the secretary; and Lord Napier, Professor
+Andrew Hunter, Professor Greenfield, and William Creech, Adam Rolland,
+Alexander Ferguson, John Dickson, John Erskine, John Campbell, Archibald
+Gibson, Archibald Fletcher, and Horatius Canning, Esqrs., as the
+committee.
+
+The others were, the Rev. J. Bidlake, of Plymouth; Joseph Storrs, of
+Chesterfield; William Fothergill, of Carr End, Yorkshire; J. Seymour, of
+Coventry; Moses Neave, of Poole; Joseph Taylor, of Scarborough; Timothy
+Clark, of Doncaster; Thomas Davis, of Milverton; George Croker Fox, of
+Falmouth; Benjamin Grubb, of Clonmell in Ireland; Sir William Forbes, of
+Edinburgh; the Rev. J. Jamieson, of Forfar; and Joseph Gurney, of
+Norwich; the latter of whom sent up a remittance, and intelligence at
+the same time, that a committee, under Mr. Leigh, so often before
+mentioned, had been formed in that city[A].
+
+[Footnote A: On the removal of Mr. Leigh from Norwich, Dr. Pretyman,
+precentor of Lincoln and a prebend of Norwich, succeeded him.]
+
+But the committee in London, while they were endeavouring to promote the
+object of their institution at home, continued their exertions for the
+same purpose abroad within this period.
+
+They kept up a communication with the different societies established in
+America.
+
+They directed their attention also to the continent of Europe. They had
+already applied, as I mentioned before, to the king of Sweden in favour
+of their cause, and had received a gracious answer. They now attempted
+to interest other Potentates in it. For this purpose they bound up in an
+elegant manner two sets of the _Essays on the Slavery and Commerce of
+the Human Species, and on the Impolicy of the Slave Trade_, and sent
+them to the Chevalier de Pinto, in Portugal. They bound up in a similar
+manner three sets of the same, and sent them to Mr. Eden (afterwards
+Lord Aukland), at Madrid, to be given to the king of Spain, the Count
+d'Aranda, and the Marquis del Campomanes.
+
+They kept up their correspondence with the committee at Paris, which had
+greatly advanced itself in the eyes of the French nation; so that, when
+the different bailliages sent deputies to the states-general, they
+instructed them to take the Slave Trade into their consideration as a
+national object, and with a view to its abolition.
+
+They kept up their correspondence with Dr. Frossard of Lyons. He had
+already published in France on the subject of the Slave Trade; and now
+he offered the committee to undertake the task, so long projected by
+them, of collecting such arguments and facts concerning it, and
+translating them into different languages, as might be useful in
+forwarding their views in foreign parts.
+
+They addressed letters also to various individuals, to Monsieur
+Snetlage, doctor of laws at Halle in Saxony; to Monsieur Ladebat, of
+Bordeaux; to the Marquis de Feuillade d'Aubusson, at Paris; and to
+Monsieur Necker. The latter in his answer replied in part as follows:
+"As this great question," says he, "is not in my department, but in that
+of the minister for the colonies, I cannot interfere in it directly, but
+I will give indirectly all the assistance in my power. I have for a long
+time taken an interest in the general alarm on this occasion, and in the
+noble alliance of the friends of humanity in favour of the injured
+Africans. Such an attempt throws a new lustre over your nation. It is
+not yet, however, a national object in France; but the moment may
+perhaps come, and I shall think myself happy in preparing the way for
+it. You must be aware, however, of the difficulties which we shall have
+to encounter on our side of the water; for our colonies are much more
+considerable than yours; so that in the view of political interest we
+are not on an equal footing. It will therefore be necessary to find some
+middle line at first, as it cannot be expected that humanity alone will
+be the governing principle of mankind."
+
+But the day was now drawing near, when it was expected that this great
+contest would be decided. Mr. Wilberforce, on the 19th of March, rose up
+in the House of Commons and desired the resolution to be read, by which
+the house stood pledged to take the Slave Trade into their consideration
+in the then session; He then moved that the house should resolve itself
+into a committee of the whole house on Thursday the 23rd of April, for
+this purpose. This motion was agreed to; after which he moved for
+certain official documents necessary to throw light upon the subject in
+the course of its discussion.
+
+This motion, by means of which the great day of trial was now fixed,
+seemed to be the signal for the planters, merchants, and other
+interested persons to begin a furious opposition. Meetings were
+accordingly called by advertisement. At these meetings much warmth and
+virulence were manifested in debate, and propositions breathing a spirit
+of anger were adopted. It was suggested there, in the vehemence of
+passion, that the islands could exist independently of the mother
+country; nor were even threats withheld to intimidate government from
+effecting the abolition.
+
+From this time, also, the public papers began to be filled with such
+statements as were thought most likely to influence the members of the
+House of Commons, previously to the discussion of the question.
+
+The first impression attempted to be made upon them was with respect to
+the slaves themselves. It was contended, and attempted to be shown by
+the revival of the old argument of human sacrifices in Africa, that
+these were better off in the islands than in their own country. It was
+contended, also, that they were people of very inferior capacities, and
+but little removed from the brute creation; whence an inference was
+drawn that their treatment, against which so much clamour had arisen,
+was adapted to their intellect and feelings.
+
+The next attempt was to degrade the abolitionists in the opinion of the
+house, by showing the wildness and absurdity of their schemes. It was
+again insisted upon that emancipation was the real, object of the
+former; so that thousands of slaves would be let loose in the islands to
+rob or perish, and who could never be brought back again into habits of
+useful industry.
+
+An attempt was then made to excite their pity in behalf of the planters.
+The abolition, it was said, would produce insurrections among the
+slaves. But insurrections would produce the massacre of their masters;
+and, if any of these should happily escape from butchery, they would be
+reserved only for ruin.
+
+An appeal was then made to them on the ground of their own interest and
+of that of the people whom they represented. It was stated that the ruin
+of the islands would be the ruin of themselves and of the country. Its
+revenue would be half annihilated; its naval strength would decay.
+Merchants, manufacturers and others would come to beggary. But in this
+deplorable situation they would expect to be indemnified for their
+losses. Compensation, indeed, must follow: it could not be withheld. But
+what would be the amount of it? The country would have no less than from
+eighty to a hundred millions to pay the sufferers; and it would be
+driven to such distress in paying this sum as it had never before
+experienced.
+
+The last attempt was to show them that a regulation of the trade was all
+that was now wanted. While this would remedy the evils complained of, it
+would prevent the mischief which would assuredly follow the abolition.
+The planters had already done their part. The assemblies of the
+different islands had most of them made wholesome laws upon the subject.
+The very bills passed for this purpose in Jamaica and Grenada had
+arrived in England, and might be seen by the public; the great
+grievances had been redressed; no slave could now be mutilated or
+wantonly killed by his owner; one man could not now maltreat, or bruise,
+or wound the slave of another; the aged could not now be turned off to
+perish by hunger. There were laws, also, relative to the better feeding
+and clothing of the slaves. It remained only that the trade to Africa
+should be put under as wise and humane regulations as the slavery in the
+islands had undergone.
+
+These different statements, appearing now in the public papers from day
+to day, began, in this early stage of the question, when the subject in
+all its bearings was known but to few, to make a considerable impression
+upon those, who were soon to be called to the decision of it. But that
+which had the greatest effect upon them, was the enormous amount of the
+compensation, which, it was said, must be made. This statement against
+the abolition was making its way so powerfully, that Archdeacon Paley
+thought it his duty to write, and to send to the committee, a little
+treatise called _Arguments against the unjust Pretensions of Slave
+Dealers and Holders, to be indemnified by pecuniary Allowances at the
+public expense, in case the Slave Trade should be abolished_. This
+treatise, when the substance of it was detailed in the public papers,
+had its influence upon several members of the House of Commons; but
+there were others who had been, as it were, panic-struck by the
+statement. These in their fright seemed to have lost the right use of
+their eyes, or to have looked through a magnifying glass. With these the
+argument of emancipation, which they would have rejected at another time
+as ridiculous, obtained now easy credit. The massacres too, and the
+ruin, though only conjectural, they admitted also. Hence some of them
+deserted our cause wholly, while others, wishing to do justice as far as
+they could to the slaves on the one hand, and to their own countrymen on
+the other, adopted a middle line of conduct, and would go no further
+than the regulation of the trade.
+
+While these preparations were making by our opponents to prejudice the
+minds of those who were to be the judges in this contest, Mr. Pitt
+presented the privy council report at the bar of the House of Commons;
+and as it was a large folio volume, and contained the evidence upon
+which the question was to be decided, it was necessary that time should
+be given to the members to peruse it. Accordingly, the 12th of May was
+appointed, instead of the 23rd of April, for the discussion of the
+question.
+
+This postponement of the discussion of the question gave time to all
+parties to prepare themselves further. The merchants and planters
+availed themselves of it to collect petitions to parliament from
+interested persons, against the abolition of the trade, to wait upon
+members of parliament by deputation, in order to solicit their
+attendance in their favour, and to renew their injurious paragraphs in
+the public papers. The committee for the abolition availed themselves of
+it to reply to these; and here Dr. Dickson, who had been secretary to
+Governor Hey, in Barbados, and who had offered the committee his
+_Letters on Slavery_ before mentioned, and his services also, was of
+singular use. Many members of parliament availed themselves of it to
+retire into the country to read the report. Among the latter were Mr.
+Wilberforce and Mr. Pitt. In this retirement they discovered,
+notwithstanding the great disadvantages under which we had laboured with
+respect to evidence, that our cause was safe, and that, as far as it was
+to be decided by reason and sound policy, it would triumph. It was in
+this retirement that Mr. Pitt made those able calculations which
+satisfied him for ever after, as the minister of the country, as to the
+safety of the great measure of the abolition of the Slave Trade; for he
+had clearly proved, that not only the islands could go on in a
+flourishing state without supplies from the coast of Africa, but that
+they were then in a condition to do it.
+
+At length the 12th of May arrived. Mr. Wilberforce rose up in the
+Commons and moved the order of the day for the house to resolve itself
+into a committee of the whole house, to take into consideration the
+petitions which had been presented against the Slave Trade.
+
+This order having been read, he moved that the report of the committee
+of privy council, that the acts passed in the islands relative to
+slaves, that the evidence adduced last year on the Slave Trade, that the
+petitions offered in the last session against the Slave Trade, and that
+the accounts presented to the house in the last and present session
+relative to the exports and imports of Africa, be referred to the same
+committee.
+
+These motions having been severally agreed to, the House immediately
+resolved itself into a committee of the whole house, and Sir William
+Dolben was put into the chair.
+
+Mr. Wilberforce began by declaring, that when he considered how much
+discussion the subject, which he was about to explain to the committee,
+had occasioned, not only in that House, but throughout the kingdom, and
+throughout Europe; and when he considered the extent and importance of
+it, the variety of interests involved in it, and the consequences which
+might arise, he owned he had been filled with apprehensions, lest a
+subject of such magnitude, and a cause of such weight, should suffer
+from the weakness of its advocate; but when he recollected that, in the
+progress of his inquiries, he had everywhere been received with candour,
+that most people gave him credit for the purity of his motives, and
+that, however many of these might then differ from him, they were all
+likely to agree in the end, he had dismissed his fears, and marched
+forward with a firmer step in this cause of humanity, justice, and
+religion. He could not, however, but lament that the subject had excited
+so much warmth. He feared that too many on this account were but ill
+prepared to consider it with impartiality. He entreated all such to
+endeavour to be calm and composed. A fair and cool discussion was
+essentially necessary. The motion he meant to offer, was as reconcilable
+to political expediency as to national humanity. It belonged to no party
+question. It would in the end be found serviceable to all parties, and
+to the best interests of the country. He did not come forward to accuse
+the West India planter, or the Liverpool merchant, or indeed any one
+concerned in this traffic; but, if blame attached anywhere, to take
+shame to himself in common, indeed, with the whole parliament of Great
+Britain, who, having suffered it to be carried on under their own
+authority, were all of them participators in the guilt.
+
+In endeavouring to explain the great business of the day, he said he
+should call the attention of the House only to the leading features of
+the Slave Trade. Nor should he dwell long upon these. Every one might
+imagine for himself what must be the natural consequence of such a
+commerce with Africa. Was it not plain that she must suffer from it?
+that her savage manners must be rendered still more ferocious? and that
+a trade of this nature, carried on round her coasts, must extend
+violence and desolation to her very centre? It was well known that the
+natives of Africa were sold as goods, and that numbers of them were
+continually conveyed away from their country by the owners of British
+vessels. The question then was, which way the latter came by them. In
+answer to this question, the privy council report, which was then on the
+table, afforded evidence the most satisfactory and conclusive. He had
+found things in it, which had confirmed every proposition he had
+maintained before, whether this proposition had been gathered from
+living information of the best authority, or from the histories he had
+read. But it was unnecessary either to quote the report, or to appeal to
+history on this occasion. Plain reason and common sense would point out
+how the poor Africans were obtained. Africa was a country divided into
+many kingdoms, which had different governments and laws. In many parts
+the princes were despotic. In others they had a limited rule. But in all
+of them, whatever the nature of the government was, men were considered
+as goods and property, and, as such, subject to plunder in the same
+manner as property in other countries. The persons in power there were
+naturally fond of our commodities; and to obtain them, (which could only
+be done by the sale of their countrymen,) they waged war on one another,
+or even ravaged their own country, when they could find no pretence for
+quarrelling with their neighbours: in their courts of law many poor
+wretches, who were innocent, were condemned; and to obtain these
+commodities in greater abundance, thousands were kidnapped and torn from
+their families, and sent into slavery. Such transactions, he said, were
+recorded in every history of Africa, and the report on the table
+confirmed them. With respect, however, to these he should make but one
+or two observations. If we looked into the reign of Henry the Eighth, we
+should find a parallel for one of them. We should find that similar
+convictions took place; and that penalties followed conviction. With
+respect to wars, the kings of Africa were never induced to engage in
+them by public principles, by national glory, and least of all by the
+love of their people. This had been stated by those most conversant in
+the subject, by Dr. Spaarman and Mr. Wadstrom. They had conversed with
+these princes, and had learned from their own mouths that to procure
+slaves was the object of their hostilities. Indeed, there was scarcely a
+single person examined before the privy council who did not prove that
+the Slave Trade was the source of the tragedies acted upon that
+extensive continent. Some had endeavoured to palliate this circumstance;
+but there was not one who did not more or less admit it to be true. By
+one the Slave Trade was called the concurrent cause, by the majority it
+was acknowledged to be the principal motive, of the African wars. The
+same might be said with respect to those instances of treachery and
+injustice, in which individuals were concerned. And here he was sorry to
+observe that our own countrymen were often guilty. He would only at
+present advert to the tragedy at Calabar, where two-large African
+villages, having been for some time at war, made peace. This peace was
+to have, been ratified by intermarriages; but some of our captains, who
+were there, seeing their trade would be stopped for a while, sowed
+dissension again between them. They actually set one village against the
+other, took a share in the contest, massacred many of the inhabitants,
+and carried others of them away as slaves. But shocking as this
+transaction might appear, there was not a single history of Africa to be
+read, in which scenes of as atrocious a nature were not related. They,
+he said, who defended this trade, were warped and blinded by their own
+interests, and would not be convinced of the miseries they were daily
+heaping on their fellow creatures. By the countenance, they gave it,
+they had reduced the inhabitants of Africa to a worse state than that of
+the most barbarous nation. They had destroyed what ought to have been
+the bond of union and safety among them; they had introduced discord and
+anarchy among them; they had set kings against their subjects, and
+subjects against each other; they had rendered every private family
+wretched; they had, in short, given birth to scenes of injustice and
+misery not to be found in any other quarter of the globe.
+
+Having said thus much on the subject of procuring slaves in, Africa, he
+would now go to that of the transportation of them. And here he had
+fondly hoped, that when men with affections and feelings like our own
+had been torn from their country, and everything dear to them, he should
+have found some mitigation of their sufferings; but the sad reverse was
+the case. This was the most wretched part of the whole subject. He was
+incapable, of impressing the House with what he felt upon it. A
+description of their conveyance was impossible. So much misery
+condensed, in so little room was more than the human imagination had
+ever before conceived. Think only of six hundred persons linked
+together, trying to get rid of each other, crammed in a close vessel
+with every object that was nauseous and disgusting, diseased, and
+struggling with all the varieties of wretchedness. It seemed impossible
+to add anything more to human misery. Yet shocking as this description
+must be felt to be by every man, the transportation had been described
+by several witnesses from Liverpool to be a comfortable conveyance. Mr.
+Norris had painted the accommodations on board a slave-ship in the most
+glowing colours. He had represented them in a manner which would have
+exceeded his attempts at praise of the most luxurious scenes. Their
+apartments, he said, were fitted up as advantageously for them as
+circumstances could possibly admit: they had several meals a day; some
+of their own country provisions, with the best sauces of African
+cookery; and, by way of variety, another meal of pulse, according to the
+European taste. After breakfast they had water to wash themselves, while
+their apartments were perfumed with frankincense and lime-juice. Before
+dinner they were amused after the manner of their country; instruments
+of music were introduced; the song and the dance were promoted; games of
+chance were furnished them; the men played and sang, while the women and
+girls made fanciful ornaments from beads, with which they were
+plentifully supplied. They were indulged in all their little fancies,
+and kept in sprightly humour. Another of them had said, when the sailors
+were flogged, it was out of the hearing of the Africans, lest it should
+depress their spirits. He by no means wished to say that such
+descriptions were wilful misrepresentations. If they were not, it proved
+that interest or prejudice was capable of spreading a film over the eyes
+thick enough to occasion total blindness.
+
+Others, however, and these men of the greatest veracity, had given a
+different account. What would the house think, when by the concurring
+testimony of these the true history was laid open? The slaves who had
+been described as rejoicing in their captivity, were so wrung with
+misery at leaving their country, that it was the constant practice to
+set sail in the night, lest they should know the moment of their
+departure. With respect to their accommodation, the right ancle of one
+was fastened to the left ancle of another by an iron fetter; and if they
+were turbulent, by another on the wrists. Instead of the apartments
+described, they were placed in niches, and along the decks, in such a
+manner, that it was impossible for any one to pass among them, however
+careful he might be, without treading upon them. Sir George Yonge had
+testified, that in a slave-ship, on board of which he went, and which
+had not completed her cargo by two hundred and fifty, instead of the
+scent of frankincense being perceptible to the nostrils, the stench was
+intolerable. The allowance of water was, so deficient, that the slaves
+were, frequently found gasping for life, and almost suffocated. The
+pulse with which they had been said to be favoured, were absolutely
+English horse-beans. The legislature of Jamaica had stated the
+scantiness both of water and provisions, as a subject which called for
+the interference of parliament. As Mr. Norris had said, the song and the
+dance were promoted, he could not pass over these expressions without
+telling the house what they meant. It would have been much more fair if
+he himself had explained the word _promoted_. The truth was, that, for
+the sake of exercise, these miserable wretches, loaded with chains and
+oppressed with disease, were forced to dance by the terror of the lash,
+and sometimes by the actual use of it. "I" said one of the evidences,
+"was employed to dance the men, while another person danced the women."
+Such then was the meaning of the, word _promoted_; and it might also be
+observed with respect to food, that instruments were sometimes carried
+out in order to force them to eat; which was the same sort of proof, how
+much they enjoyed themselves in this instance also. With respect to
+their singing, it consisted of songs, of lamentation for the loss of
+their country. While they sung they were in tears: so that one of the
+captains, more humane probably than the rest, threatened a woman with a
+flogging because the mournfulness of her song was too painful for his
+feelings. Perhaps he could not give a better proof of the sufferings of
+these injured people during their passage, than by stating the mortality
+which accompanied it. This was a species of evidence, which was
+infallible on this occasion. Death was a witness which could not deceive
+them; and the proportion of deaths would not only confirm, but, if
+possible, even aggravate our suspicion of the misery of the transit. It
+would be found, upon an average of all the ships, upon which evidence
+had been given, that, exclusively of such as perished before they sailed
+from Africa, not less than twelve and-a-half per cent died on their
+passage: besides these, the Jamaica report stated that four and-a-half
+per cent died while in the harbours, or on shore before the day of sale,
+which was only about the space of twelve or fourteen days after their
+arrival there; and one-third more died in the seasoning: and this in a
+climate exactly similar to their own, and where, as some of the
+witnesses pretended, they were healthy and happy. Thus out of every lot
+of one hundred shipped from Africa, seventeen died in about nine weeks,
+and not more than fifty lived to become effective labourers in our
+islands.
+
+Having advanced thus far in his investigation, he felt, he said, the
+wickedness of the Slave Trade to be so enormous, so dreadful, and
+irremediable, that he could stop at no alternative short of its
+abolition, A trade founded on iniquity, and carried on with such
+circumstances of horror, must be abolished, let the policy of it be what
+it might; and he had from this time determined, whatever were the
+consequences, that he would never rest till he had effected that
+abolition. His mind had, indeed, been harassed by the objections of the
+West India planters, who had asserted, that the ruin of their property
+must be the consequence of such a measure. He could not help, however,
+distrusting their arguments. He could not believe that the Almighty
+Being, who had forbidden the practice of rapine and bloodshed, had made
+rapine and bloodshed necessary to any part of his universe. He felt a
+confidence in this persuasion, and took the resolution to act upon it.
+Light, indeed, soon broke in upon him. The suspicion of his mind was
+every day confirmed by increasing information, and the evidence he had
+now to offer upon this point was decisive and complete. The principle
+upon which he founded the necessity of the abolition was not policy, but
+justice: but though justice were the principle of the measure, yet he
+trusted he should distinctly prove it to be reconcilable with our truest
+political interest.
+
+In the first place, he asserted that the number of the slaves in our
+West India islands might be kept up without the introduction of recruits
+from Africa; and to prove this, he would enumerate the different sources
+of their mortality. The first was the disproportion of the sexes, there
+being, upon an average, about five males imported to three females: but
+this evil, when the Slave Trade was abolished, would cure itself. The
+second consisted in the bad condition in which they were brought to the
+islands, and the methods of preparing them for sale. They arrived
+frequently in a sickly and disordered state, and then they were made up
+for the market by the application of astringents, washes, mercurial
+ointments, and repelling drugs, so that their wounds and diseases might
+be hid. These artifices were not only fraudulent but fatal; but these,
+it was obvious, would of themselves fall with the trade. A third was,
+excessive labour joined with improper food; and a fourth was, the
+extreme dissoluteness of their manners. These, also, would both of them
+be counteracted by the impossibility of getting further supplies: for
+owners, now unable to replace those slaves whom they might lose, by
+speedy purchases in the markets, would be more careful how they treated
+them in future, and a better treatment would be productive of better
+morals. And here he would just advert to an argument used against those
+who complained of cruelty in our islands, which was, that it was the
+interest of masters to treat their slaves with humanity: but surely it
+was immediate and present, not future and distant interest, which was
+the great spring of action in the affairs of mankind. Why did we make
+laws to punish men? It was their interest to be upright and virtuous:
+but there was a present impulse continually breaking in upon their
+better judgment, and an impulse, which was known to be contrary to their
+permanent advantage. It was ridiculous to say that men would be bound by
+their interest, when gain or ardent passion urged them. It might as well
+be asserted, that a stone could not be thrown into the air, or a body
+move from place to place, because the principle of gravitation bound
+them to the surface of the earth. If a planter in the West Indies found
+himself reduced in his profits, he did not usually dispose of any part
+of his slaves; and his own gratifications were never given up, so long
+as there was a possibility of making any retrenchment in the allowance
+of his slaves.--But to return to the subject which he had left: he was
+happy to state, that as all the causes of the decrease which he had
+stated might be remedied, so, by the progress of light and reformation,
+these remedies had been gradually coming into practice; and that, as
+these had increased, the decrease of slaves had in an equal proportion
+been lessened. By the gradual adoption of these remedies, he could prove
+from the report on the table, that the decrease of slaves in Jamaica had
+lessened to such a degree, that from the year 1774 to the present it was
+not quite one in a hundred, and that, in fact, they were at present in a
+state of increase; for that the births in that island, at this moment,
+exceeded the deaths by one thousand or eleven hundred per annum.
+Barbados, Nevis, Antigua, and the Bermudas, were, like Jamaica,
+lessening their decrease, and holding forth an evident and reasonable
+expectation of a speedy state of increase by natural population. But
+allowing the number of Negroes even to decrease for a time, there were
+methods which would insure the welfare of the West India islands. The
+lands there might be cultivated by fewer hands, and this to greater
+advantage to the proprietors and to this country, by the produce of
+cinnamon, coffee, and cotton, than by that of sugar. The produce of the
+plantations might also be considerably increased, even in the case of
+sugar, with less hands than were at present employed, if the owners of
+them would but introduce machines of husbandry. Mr. Long himself, long
+resident as a planter, had proved, upon his own estate, that the plough,
+though so little used in the West Indies, did the service of a hundred
+slaves, and caused the same ground to produce three hogsheads of sugar,
+which, when cultivated by slaves, would only produce two. The division
+of work, which, in free and civilized countries, was the grand source of
+wealth, and the reduction of the number of domestic servants, of whom
+not less than from twenty to forty were kept in ordinary families,
+afforded other resources for this purpose. But, granting that all these
+suppositions should be unfounded, and that everyone of these substitutes
+should fail for a time, the planters would be indemnified, as is the
+case in all transactions of commerce, by the increased price of their
+produce in the British market. Thus, by contending against the
+abolition, they were defeated in every part of the argument. But he
+would never give up the point, that the number of the slaves could be
+kept up, by natural population, and without any dependence whatever on
+the Slave Trade. He therefore called upon the house again to abolish it
+as a criminal waste of life--it was utterly unnecessary--he had proved
+it so by documents contained in the report. The merchants of Liverpool,
+indeed, had thought otherwise, but he should be cautious how he assented
+to their opinions. They declared last year that it was a losing trade at
+two slaves to a ton, and yet they pursued it when restricted to five
+slaves to three tons. He believed, however, that it was upon the whole a
+losing concern; in the same manner as the lottery would be a losing
+adventure to any company who should buy all the tickets. Here and there
+an individual gained a large prize, but the majority of adventurers
+gained nothing. The same merchants, too, had asserted, that the town of
+Liverpool would be mined by the abolition. But Liverpool did not depend
+for its consequence upon the Slave Trade. The whole export-tonnage from
+that place amounted to no less than 170,000 tons; whereas the export
+part of it to Africa amounted only to 13,000. Liverpool, he was sure,
+owed its greatness to other and very different causes; the Slave Trade
+bearing but a small proportion to its other trade.
+
+Having gone through that part of the subject which related to the
+slaves, he would now answer two objections which he had frequently heard
+stated. The first of these was, that the abolition of the Slave Trade
+would operate to the total ruin of our navy, and to the increase of that
+of our rivals. For an answer to these assertions, he referred to what he
+considered to be the most valuable part of the report, and for which the
+House and the country were indebted to the indefatigable exertions of
+Mr. Clarkson. By the report it appeared, that, instead of the Slave
+Trade being a nursery for British seamen, it was their grave. It
+appeared that more seamen died in that trade in one year than in the
+whole remaining trade of the country in two. Out of 910 sailors in it,
+216 died in the year, while upon a fair average of the same number of
+men employed in the trades to the East and West Indies, Petersburgh,
+Newfoundland, and Greenland, no more than eighty-seven died. It appeared
+also, that out of 3170, who had left Liverpool in the slave-ships in the
+year 1787, only 1428 had returned. And here, while he lamented the loss
+which the country thus annually sustained in her seamen, he had
+additionally to lament the barbarous usage which they experienced, and
+which this trade, by its natural tendency to harden the heart,
+exclusively produced. He would just read an extract of a letter from
+Governor Parrey, of Barbados, to Lord Sydney, one of the secretaries of
+state. The Governor declared he could no longer contain himself on
+account of the ill treatment, which the British sailors endured at the
+hands of their savage captains. These were obliged to have their vessels
+strongly manned, not only on account of the unhealthiness of the climate
+of Africa, but of the necessity of guarding the slaves, and preventing
+and suppressing insurrections; and when they arrived in the West Indies,
+and were out of all danger from the latter, they quarrelled with their
+men on the most frivolous pretences, on purpose to discharge them, and
+thus save the payment of supernumerary wages home. Thus many were left
+in a diseased and deplorable state; either to perish by sickness, or to
+enter into foreign service; great numbers of whom were for ever lost to
+their country. The Governor concluded by declaring, that the enormities
+attendant on this trade were so great, as to demand the immediate
+interference of the legislature.
+
+The next objection to the abolition was, that if we were to relinquish
+the Slave Trade, our rivals, the French, would take it up; so that,
+while we should suffer by the measure, the evil would still go on, and
+this even to its former extent. This was, indeed, a very weak argument;
+and, if it would defend the continuance of the Slave Trade, might
+equally be urged in favour of robbery, murder, and every species of
+wickedness, which, if we did not practise, others would commit. But
+suppose, for the sake of argument, that they were to take it up, what
+good would it do them? What advantages, for instance, would they derive
+from this pestilential commerce to their marine? Should not we, on the
+other hand, be benefited by this change? Would they not be obliged to
+come to us, in consequence of the cheapness of our manufactures, for
+what they wanted for the African market? But he would not calumniate the
+French nation so much as to suppose that they would carry on the trade,
+if we were to relinquish it. He believed, on the other hand, that they
+would abolish it also. Mr. Necker, the minister of France, was a man of
+religious principle; and, in his work upon the administration of the
+finances, had recorded his abhorrence of this trade. He was happy also
+to relate an anecdote of the king of France, which proved that he was a
+friend to the abolition; for, being petitioned to dissolve a society,
+formed at Paris, for the annihilation of the Slave Trade, his majesty
+answered, that he would not, and was happy to hear that so humane an
+association was formed in his dominions. And here, having mentioned the
+society in Paris, he could not help paying a due compliment to that
+established in London for the same purpose, which had laboured with the
+greatest assiduity to make this important subject understood, and which
+had conducted itself with so much judgment and moderation as to have
+interested men of all religions, and to have united them in their cause.
+
+There was another topic which he would submit to the notice of the
+House, before he concluded. They were perhaps not aware that a fair and
+honourable trade might be substituted in the natural productions of
+Africa, so that our connexion with that continent in the way of
+commercial advantage need not be lost. The natives had already made some
+advances in it; and if they had not appeared so forward in raising and
+collecting their own produce for sale as in some other countries, it was
+to be imputed to the Slave Trade: but remove the cause, and Africa would
+soon emerge from her present ignorant and indolent state. Civilization
+would go on with her as well as with other nations. Europe, three or
+four centuries ago, was in many parts as barbarous as Africa at present,
+and chargeable with as bad practices. For what would be said, if, so
+late as the middle of the thirteenth century, he could find a parallel
+there for the Slave Trade?--Yes. This parallel was to be found even in
+England. The people of Bristol, in the reign of Henry the Seventh, had a
+regular market for children, which were bought by the Irish: but the
+latter having experienced a general calamity, which they imputed as a
+judgment from Heaven on account of this wicked traffic, abolished it.
+The only thing, therefore, which he had to solicit of the House, was to
+show that they were now as enlightened as the Irish were four centuries
+back, by refusing to buy the children of other nations. He hoped they
+would do it. He hoped, too, they would do it in an unqualified manner.
+Nothing less than a total abolition of the trade would do away the evils
+complained of. The legislature of Jamaica, indeed, had thought that
+regulations might answer the purpose. Their report had recommended, that
+no person should be kidnapped, or permitted to be made a slave, contrary
+to the customs of Africa. But might he not be reduced to this state very
+unjustly, and yet by no means contrary to the African laws? Besides, how
+could we distinguish between those who were justly or unjustly reduced
+to it? Could we discover them by their physiognomy?--But if we could,
+who would believe that the British captains would be influenced by any
+regulations; made in this country, to refuse to purchase those who had
+not been fairly, honestly? and uprightly enslaved? They who were offered
+to us for sale, were brought, some of them, three or four thousand
+miles, and exchanged like cattle from one hand to another, till they
+reached the coast. But who could return these to their homes, or make
+them compensation for their sufferings during their long journeyings? He
+would now conclude by begging pardon of the House for having detained
+them so long. He could indeed have expressed his own conviction in fewer
+words. He needed only to have made one or two short statements, and to
+have quoted the commandment, "Thou shalt do no murder." But he thought
+it his duty to lay the whole of the case, and the whole of its guilt,
+before them. They would see now that no mitigations, no palliatives,
+would either be efficient or admissible. Nothing short of an absolute
+abolition could be adopted. This they owed to Africa: they owed it, too,
+to their own moral characters. And he hoped they would follow up the
+principle of one of the repentant African captains, who had gone before
+the committee of privy council as a voluntary witness, and that they
+would make Africa all the atonement in their power for the multifarious
+injuries she had received at the hands of British subjects. With respect
+to these injuries, their enormity and extent, it might be alleged in
+their excuse, that they were not fully acquainted with them till that
+moment, and therefore not answerable for their former existence: but now
+they could no longer plead ignorance concerning them. They had seen them
+brought directly before their eyes, and they must decide for themselves,
+and must justify to the world and their own consciences the facts and
+principles upon which their decision was formed.
+
+Mr. Wilberforce having concluded his speech, which lasted three hours
+and a half, read, and laid on the table of the House, as subjects for
+their future discussion, twelve propositions which he had deduced from
+the evidence contained in the privy council report, and of which the
+following is the abridged substance:--
+
+1. That the number of slaves annually carried from the coast of Africa,
+in British vessels, was about 38,000, of which, on an average, 22,500
+were carried to the British islands, and that of the latter only 17,500
+were retained there.
+
+2. That these slaves, according to the evidence on the table, consisted,
+first, of prisoners of war; secondly, of free persons sold for debt, or
+on account of real or imputed crimes, particularly adultery and
+witchcraft; in which cases they were frequently sold with their whole
+families, and sometimes for the profit of those by whom they were
+condemned; thirdly, of domestic slaves sold for the profit of their
+masters, in some places at the will of the masters, and in others, on
+being condemned by them for real or imputed crimes; fourthly, of persons
+made slaves by various acts of oppression, violence, or fraud, committed
+either by the princes and chiefs of those countries on their subjects,
+or by private individuals on each other; or, lastly, by Europeans
+engaged in this traffic.
+
+3. That the trade so carried on, had necessarily a tendency to occasion
+frequent and cruel wars among the natives; to produce unjust convictions
+and punishments for pretended or aggravated crimes; to encourage acts of
+oppression, violence, and fraud, and to obstruct the natural course of
+civilization and improvement in those countries!
+
+4. That Africa in its present state furnished several valuable articles
+of commerce, which were partly peculiar to itself, but that it was
+adapted to the production of others, with which we were now either
+wholly or in great part supplied by foreign nations. That an extensive
+commerce with Africa might be substituted in these commodities, so as to
+afford a return for as many articles as had annually been carried
+thither in British vessels: and, lastly, that such a commerce might
+reasonably be expected to increase, by the progress of civilization
+there.
+
+5. That the Slave Trade was peculiarly destructive to the seamen
+employed in it; and that the mortality there had been much greater than
+in any British vessels employed upon the same coast in any other service
+or trade.
+
+6. That the mode of transporting the slaves from Africa to the West
+Indies necessarily exposed them to many and grievous sufferings, for
+which no regulations could provide an adequate remedy; and that in
+consequence thereof a large proportion had annually perished during the
+voyage.
+
+7. That a large proportion had also perished in the harbours in the West
+Indies, from the diseases contracted in the voyage, and the treatment of
+the same, previously to their being sold; and that this loss amounted to
+four and a half percent of the imported slaves.
+
+8. That the loss of the newly-imported slaves, within the three first
+years after their importation, bore a large proportion to the whole
+number imported.
+
+9. That the natural increase of population among the slaves in the
+islands appeared to have been impeded principally by the following
+causes:--First, by the inequality of the sexes in the importations from
+Africa. Secondly, by the general dissoluteness of manners among the
+slaves, and the want of proper regulations for the encouragement of
+marriages, and of rearing children among them. Thirdly, by the
+particular diseases which were prevalent among them, and which were, in
+some instances, to be attributed to too severe labour, or rigorous
+treatment; and in others to insufficient or improper food. Fourthly, by
+those diseases, which affected a large proportion of negro-children in
+their infancy, and by those to which the negroes, newly imported from
+Africa, had been found to be particularly liable.
+
+10. That the whole number of the slaves in the island of Jamaica, in
+1768, was about 167,000, in 1774, about 193,000, and in 1787, about
+256,000: that by comparing these numbers with the numbers imported and
+retained in the said island during all these years, and making proper
+allowances, the annual excess of deaths above births was in the
+proportion of about seven-eighths per cent.; that in the first six years
+of this period it was in the proportion of rather more than one on every
+hundred; that in the last thirteen years of the same it was in the
+proportion of about three-fifths on every hundred; and that a number of
+slaves, amounting to fifteen thousand, perished during the latter
+period, in consequence of repeated hurricanes, and of the want of
+foreign supplies of provisions.
+
+11. That the whole number of slaves in the island of Barbados was, in
+the year, 1764, about 70,706; in 1774, about 74,874; in 1780, about
+68,270; in 1781, after the hurricane, about 63,248, and in 1786, about
+62,115; that, by comparing these numbers with the number imported into
+this island, (not allowing for any re-exportation,) the annual excess of
+deaths above births in the ten years, from 1764 to 1774, was in, the
+proportion of about five on every hundred; that in the seven years, from
+1774 to 1780, it was in the proportion of about one and one-third on
+every hundred; that between the years 1780 and 1781 there had been a
+decrease in the number of slaves, of about 5000; that in the six years,
+from 1781 to 1786, the excess of deaths was in the proportion of rather
+less than seven-eighths on every hundred; that in the four years, from,
+1783 to 1786, it was in the proportion of rather less than one-third on
+every hundred; and that during the whole period, there was no doubt that
+some had been exported from the island, but considerably more in the
+first part of this period than in the last.
+
+12. That the accounts from the Leeward Islands, and from Dominica,
+Grenada, and St. Vincent's, did not furnish sufficient grounds for
+comparing the state of population in the said islands, at different
+periods, with the number of slaves, which had been from time to time
+imported there, and exported therefrom; but that from the evidence which
+had been received, respecting the present state of these islands, as
+well as that of Jamaica and Barbados, and from a consideration of the
+means of obviating the causes, which had hitherto operated to impede the
+natural increase of the slaves, and of lessening the demand for manual
+labour, without diminishing the profit of the planters, no considerable
+or permanent inconvenience would result from discontinuing the further
+importation of African slaves.
+
+These propositions having been laid upon the table of the House, Lord
+Penrhyn rose in behalf of the planters; and next, after him, Mr.
+Gascoyne, (both members for Liverpool,) in behalf of the  merchants
+concerned in the latter place. They both predicted the ruin and misery
+which would inevitably follow the abolition of the trade. The former
+said, that no less than seventy millions were mortgaged upon lands in
+the West Indies, all of which would be lost. Mr. Wilberforce, therefore,
+should have made a motion to pledge the House to the repayment of this
+sum, before he had brought forward his propositions. Compensation ought
+to have been agreed upon as a previous necessary measure. The latter
+said, that in consequence of the bill of last year, many ships were laid
+up, and many seamen out of employ. His constituents had large capitals
+engaged in the trade, and, if it were to be wholly done away, they would
+suffer from not knowing where to employ them: they both joined in
+asserting, that Mr. Wilberforce had made so many misrepresentations in
+all the branches of this subject, that no reliance whatever was to be
+placed on the picture, which he had chosen to exhibit. They should
+speak, however, more fully to this point when the propositions were
+discussed.
+
+The latter declaration called up Mr. Wilberforce again, who observed
+that he had no intention of misrepresenting any fact: he did not know
+that he had done it in any one instance; but, if he had, it would be
+easy to convict him out of the report upon the table.
+
+Mr. Burke then rose. He would not, he said, detain the committee long:
+indeed, he was not able, weary and indisposed as he then felt himself,
+even if he had an inclination to do it; but as on account of his other
+parliamentary duty, he might not have it in his power to attend the
+business now before them in its course, he would take that opportunity
+of stating his opinion upon it.
+
+And, first, the House, the nation, and all Europe were under great
+obligations to Mr. Wilberforce for having brought this important subject
+forward. He had done it in a manner the most masterly, impressive, and
+eloquent. He had laid down his principles so admirably, and with so much
+order and force, that his speech had equalled anything he had ever heard
+in modern oratory, and perhaps it had not been excelled by anything to
+be found in ancient times. As to the Slave Trade itself, there could not
+be two opinions about it, where men were not interested. A trade begun
+in savage war, prosecuted with unheard-of barbarity, continued during
+the transportation with the most loathsome imprisonment, and ending in
+perpetual exile and slavery, was a trade so horrid in all in
+circumstances, that it; was impossible to produce a single argument in
+its favour. On the ground of prudence, nothing could be said in defence
+of it, nor could it be justified by necessity. It was necessity alone
+that could be brought to justify inhumanity; but no case of necessity
+could be made out strong enough to justify this monstrous traffic. It
+was therefore the duty of the House to put an end to it, and this
+without further delay. This conviction, that it became them to do it
+immediately, made him regret (and it was the only thing he regretted in
+the admirable speech he had heard) that his honourable friend should
+have introduced propositions on this subject. He could have wished that
+the business had been brought to a conclusion at once, without voting
+the propositions which had been read to them. He was not over fond of
+abstract propositions; they were seldom necessary, and often occasioned
+great difficulty, embarrassment, and delay. There was, besides, no
+occasion whatever to assign detailed reasons for a vote, which nature
+herself dictated, and which religion enforced. If it should happen that
+the propositions were not carried in that House or the other, such a
+complication of mischiefs might follow, as might occasion them heartily
+to lament that they were ever introduced. If the ultimate resolution
+should happen to be lost, he was afraid the propositions would pass as
+waste paper, if not be injurious to the cause at a future time.
+
+And now, as the House must bring this matter to an issue, he would beg
+their attention to a particular point. He entreated them to look further
+than the present moment, and to ask themselves if they had fortified
+their minds sufficiently to bear the consequences which might arise from
+the abolition of the Slave Trade, supposing they should decide upon it.
+When they abandoned it, other foreign powers might take it up, and
+clandestinely supply our islands with slaves. Had they virtue enough to
+see another country reaping profits, which they themselves had given up;
+and to abstain from that envy natural to rivals, and firmly to adhere to
+their determination? If so, let them thankfully proceed to vote the
+immediate abolition of the Slave Trade. But if they should repent of
+their virtue, (and he had known miserable instances of such repentance,)
+all hopes of future reformation of this enormous evil would be lost.
+They would go back to a trade they had abandoned with redoubled
+attachment, and would adhere to it with a degree of avidity and
+shameless ardour, to their own humiliation, and to the degradation and
+disgrace of the nation in the eyes of all Europe. These were
+considerations worth regarding, before they took a decisive step in a
+business, in which they ought not to move with any other determination
+than to abide by the consequences at all hazards. The honourable
+gentleman (who to his eternal honour had introduced this great subject
+to their notice) had, in his eloquent oration, knocked at every door,
+and appealed to every passion, well knowing that mankind were governed
+by their sympathies. But there were other passions to be regarded; men
+were always ready to obey their sympathies when it cost them nothing;
+but were they prepared to pay the price of their virtue on this great
+occasion? This was the question. If they were, they would do themselves
+immortal honour, and would have the satisfaction of having done away a
+commerce, which, while it was productive of misery not to be described,
+most of all hardened the heart and vitiated the human character.
+
+With respect to the consequences mentioned by the two members for
+Liverpool, he had a word or two to offer upon them. Lord Penrhyn had
+talked of millions to be lost and paid for; but seeing no probability of
+any loss ultimately, he could see no necessity for compensation. He
+believed on the other hand, that the planters would be great gainers by
+those wholesome regulations, which they would be obliged to make, if the
+Slave Trade were abolished. He did not however flatter them with the
+idea that this gain would be immediate. Perhaps they might experience
+inconveniences at first, and even some loss. But what then? With their
+loss, their virtue would be the greater. And in this light he hoped the
+House would consider the matter; for, if they were called upon to do an
+act of virtuous energy and heroism, they ought to think it right to
+submit to temporary disadvantages for the sake of truth, justice,
+humanity, and the prospect of greater happiness.
+
+The other member, Mr. Gascoyne, had said that his constituents, if the
+trade were abolished, could not employ their capitals elsewhere. But
+whether they could or not, it was the duty of that House, if they put
+them into a traffic which was shocking to humanity and disgraceful to
+the nation, to change their application, and not to allow them to be
+used to a barbarous purpose. He believed, however, that the merchants of
+Liverpool would find no difficulty on this head. All capitals required
+active motion; it was in their nature not to remain passive and
+unemployed; they would soon turn them into other channels. This they had
+done themselves during the American war; for the Slave Trade was almost
+wholly lost, and yet they had their ships employed, either as transports
+in the service of government or in other ways.
+
+And as he now called upon the House not to allow any conjectural losses
+to become impediments in the way of the abolition of the Slave Trade, so
+he called upon them to beware how they suffered any representations of
+the happiness of the state of slavery in our islands to influence them
+against so glorious a measure. Admiral Barrington had said in his
+testimony, that he had often envied the condition of the slaves there.
+But surely, the honourable admiral must have meant, that, as he had
+often toiled like a slave in the defence of his country, (as his many
+gallant actions had proved,) so he envied the day when he was to toil in
+a similar manner in the same cause. If, however, his words were to be
+taken literally, his sensations could only be accounted for by his
+having seen the negroes in the hour of their sports, when a sense of the
+misery of their condition was neither felt by themselves not visible to
+others. But their appearance on such occasions did by no means disprove
+their low and abject state. Nothing made a happy slave but a degraded
+man. In proportion as the mind grows callous to its degradation, and all
+sense of manly pride is lost, the slave feels comfort. In fact, he is no
+longer a man. If he were to define a man, he would say with Shakespeare,
+
+
+  Man is a being holding large discourse,
+  Looking before and after.
+
+
+But, a slave was incapable of looking before and after; he had no motive
+to do it; he was a mere passive instrument in the hands of others to be
+used at their discretion. Though living, he was, dead as to all
+voluntary agency; though moving amidst the creation with an erect form,
+and with the shape and semblance of a human being, he was a nullity as a
+man.
+
+Mr. Pitt thanked his honourable friend Mr. Wilberforce for having at
+length introduced this great and important subject to the consideration
+of the House. He thanked him also for the perspicuous, forcible, and
+masterly manner in which he had treated it. He was sure that no argument
+compatible with any idea of justice could be assigned for the
+continuation of the Slave Trade. And at the same time that he was
+willing to listen with candour and attention to everything that could be
+urged on the other side of the question, he was sure that the
+principles, from which his opinion was deduced, were unalterable. He had
+examined the subject with the anxiety which became him, where the
+happiness and interests of so many thousands were concerned, and with
+the minuteness which would be expected of him, on account of, the
+responsible situation which he held; and he averred that it was
+sophistry, obscurity of ideas, and vagueness of reasoning, which alone
+could have hitherto prevented all mankind (those immediately interested
+in the question excepted) from agreeing in one and the same opinion upon
+the subject. With respect to the propriety of introducing the individual
+propositions which had been offered, he differed with Mr. Burke, and he
+thanked his honourable friend Mr. Wilberforce for having chosen the only
+way in which it could be made obvious to the worlds that they were
+warranted on every ground of reason and of fact in coming to that vote,
+which he trusted would be the end of their proceeding. The grounds for
+the attainment of this end were distinctly stated in the propositions.
+Let the propositions be brought before the House, one by one, and argued
+from the evidence, and it would then be seen that they were such as no
+one, who was not deaf to the language of reason, could deny. Let them be
+once entered upon the journals of that House, and it was almost
+impossible they should fail. The abolition must be voted; as to the mode
+of it, or how it should be effected, they were not at present to discuss
+it; but he trusted it would be such as would not invite foreign powers
+to supply our islands with slaves by a clandestine trade. After a debt,
+founded on the immutable principles of justice, was found to be due, it
+was impossible but the country had means to cause it to be paid. Should
+such an illicit proceeding be attempted; the only language which it
+became us to adopt, was, that Great Britain had resources to enable her
+to protect her islands, and to prevent that traffic from being
+clandestinely carried on by them, which she had thought fit from a
+regard to her character to abandon. It was highly becoming Great Britain
+to take the lead of other nations in such a virtuous and magnificent
+measure, and he could not but have confidence that they would he
+inclined to share the honour with us, or be pleased to follow us as
+their example. If we were disposed to set about this glorious work in
+earnest, they might he invited to concur with us by a negotiation to be
+immediately opened for that purpose. He would only now observe, before
+he sat down, in answer to certain ideas thrown out, that he could by no
+means acquiesce in any compensation for losses which might be sustained
+by the people of Liverpool or by others in any other part of the
+kingdom, in the execution of this just and necessary undertaking.
+
+Sir William Yonge said, he wanted no inducement to concur with the
+honourable mover of the propositions, provided the latter could be
+fairly established, and no serious mischiefs were to arise from the
+abolition. But he was apprehensive, that many evils might follow in the
+case of any sudden or unlooked-for decrease in the slaves. They might be
+destroyed by hurricanes. They might be swept off by many fatal
+disorders. In these cases, the owners of them would not be able to fill
+up their places, and they who had lent money upon the lands, where the
+losses had happened, would foreclose their mortgages. He was fearful,
+also, that a clandestine trade would be carried on, and then the
+sufferings of the Africans, crammed up in small vessels, which would be
+obliged to be hovering about from day to day, to watch an opportunity of
+landing, would be ten times greater than any which they now experienced
+in the legal trade. He was glad, however, as the matter was to be
+discussed, that it had been brought forward in the shape of distinct
+propositions, to be grounded upon the evidence in the privy council
+report.
+
+Mr. Fox observed that he did not like, where he agreed as to the
+substance of a measure, to differ with respect to the form of it. If,
+however, he differed in any thing in the present case, it was with a
+view rather to forward the business than to injure it, or to throw
+anything like an obstacle in its way. Nothing like either should come
+from him. What he thought was, that all the propositions were not
+necessary to be voted previously to the ultimate decision, though some
+of them undoubtedly were. He considered them as of two classes: the one,
+alleging the grounds upon which it was proper to proceed to the
+abolition; such as that the trade was productive of inexpressible
+misery, in various ways, to the innocent natives of Africa; that it was
+the grave of our seamen, and so on; the other merely answering
+objections which might be started, and where there might be a difference
+of opinion. He was, however, glad that the propositions were likely to
+be entered upon the journals; since, if, from any misfortune, the
+business should be deferred, it might succeed another year. Sure he was
+that it could not fail to succeed sooner or later. He highly approved of
+what Mr. Pitt had said relative to the language it became us to hold out
+to foreign powers, in case of a clandestine trade. With respect,
+however, to the assertion of Sir William Yonge that a clandestine trade
+in slaves would be worse than a legal one, he could not admit it. Such a
+trade, if it existed at all, ought only to be clandestine. A trade in
+human flesh and sinews was so scandalous, that it ought not openly to be
+carried on by any government whatever, and much less by that of a
+Christian country. With regard to the regulation of the Slave Trade, he
+knew of no such thing as a regulation of robbery and murder. There was
+no medium. The legislature must either abolish it, or plead guilty of
+all the wickedness which had been shown to attend it. He would now say a
+word or two with respect to the conduct of foreign nations on this
+subject. It was possible that these, when they heard that the matter had
+been discussed in that House, might follow the example, or they might go
+before us and set one themselves. If this were to happen, though we
+might be the losers, humanity would be the gainer. He himself had been
+thought sometimes to use expressions relative to France, which were too
+harsh, and as if he could only treat her as the enemy of this country.
+Politically speaking, France was our rival. But he well knew the
+distinction between political enmity and illiberal prejudice. If there
+was any great and enlightened nation in Europe, it was France, which was
+as likely as any country upon the face of the globe to catch a spark
+from the light of our fire, and to act upon the present subject with
+warmth and enthusiasm. France had often been improperly stimulated by
+her ambition; and he had no doubt but that, in the present instance, she
+would readily follow its honourable dictates.
+
+Mr. (afterwards Lord) Grenville would not detain the house by going into
+a question which had been so ably argued; but he should not do justice
+to his feelings, if he did not express publicly to his honourable
+friend, Mr. Wilberforce, the pleasure he had received from one of the
+most masterly and eloquent speeches he had ever heard; a speech which,
+while it did honour to him, entitled him to the thanks of the House, of
+the people of England, of all Europe, and of the latest posterity. He
+approved of the propositions as the best mode of bringing this great
+question to a happy issue. He was pleased, also, with the language which
+had been held out with respect to foreign nations, and with our
+determination to assert our right of preventing our colonies from
+carrying on any trade which we had thought it our duty to abandon.
+
+Aldermen Newnham, Sawbridge, and Watson, though they wished well to the
+cause of humanity, could not, as representatives of the city of London,
+give their concurrence to a measure which would injure it so essentially
+as the abolition of the Slave Trade. This trade might undoubtedly be put
+under wholesome regulations, and made productive of great commercial
+advantages; but, if it were abolished, it would render the city of
+London one scene of bankruptcy and ruin. It became the house to take
+care, while they were giving way to the goodness of their hearts, that
+they did not contribute to the ruin of the mercantile interests of their
+country.
+
+Mr. Martin stated that he was so well satisfied with the speech of the
+honourable gentleman who had introduced the propositions, and with the
+language held out by other distinguished members on this subject, that
+he felt himself more proud than ever of being an Englishman. He hoped
+and believed that the melancholy predictions of the worthy aldermen
+would not prove true, and that the citizens of London would have too
+much public spirit to wish that a great national object (which
+comprehended the great duties of humanity and justice) should be set
+aside, merely out of consideration to their own private interests.
+
+Mr. Dempster expected, notwithstanding all he had heard, that the first
+proposition submitted to them would have been to make good out of the
+public purse all the losses individuals were liable to sustain from an
+abolition of the Slave Trade. This ought to have been, as Lord Penrhyn
+had observed, a preliminary measure. He did not like to be generous out
+of the pockets of others. They were to abolish the trade, it was said,
+out of a principle of humanity. Undoubtedly they owed humanity to all
+mankind; but they also owed justice to those who were interested in the
+event of the question, and had embarked their fortunes on the faith of
+parliament. In fact he did not like to see men introducing even their
+schemes of benevolence to the detriment of other people; and much less
+did he like to see them going to the colonies, as it were upon their
+estates, and prescribing rules to them for their management. With
+respect to his own speculative opinion, as it regarded cultivation, he
+had no objection to give it. He was sure that sugar could be raised
+cheaper by free-men than by slaves. This the practice in China
+abundantly proved; but yet neither he, nor any other person, had a right
+to force a system upon others. As to the trade itself, by which the
+present labourers were supplied, it had been considered by that House as
+so valuable that they had preferred it to all others, and had annually
+voted a considerable sum towards carrying it on. They had hitherto
+deemed it an essential nursery for our seamen. Had it really been such
+as had been represented, our ancestors would scarcely have encouraged
+it; and therefore, upon these and other considerations, he could not
+help thinking that they would be wanting in their duty if they abolished
+it altogether.
+
+Mr. William Smith would not detain the House long at that late hour upon
+this important subject; but he could not help testifying the great
+satisfaction he felt at the manner, in which the honourable gentleman
+who opened the debate (if it could be so called) had treated it. He
+approved of the propositions as the best mode of bringing the decision
+to a happy issue. He gave Mr. Fox great credit for the open and manly
+way in which he had manifested his abhorrence of this trade, and for the
+support he meant to give to the total and unqualified abolition of it;
+for he was satisfied, that the more it was inquired into, the more it
+would be found that nothing short of abolition would cure the evil. With
+respect to certain assertions of the members for Liverpool, and certain
+melancholy predictions about the consequences of such an event, which
+others had held out, he desired to lay in his claim for observation upon
+them when the great question should come before the House.
+
+Soon after this the House broke up; and the discussion of the
+propositions, which was the next parliamentary measure intended, was
+postponed to a future day, which was sufficiently distant to give all
+the parties concerned, time to make the necessary preparations for it.
+
+Of this interval the committee for the abolition availed themselves, to
+thank Mr. Wilberforce for the very able and satisfactory manner in which
+he had stated to the House his propositions for the abolition of the
+Slave Trade, and for the unparalleled assiduity and perseverance with
+which he had all along endeavoured to accomplish this object, as well as
+to take measures themselves for the further promotion of it. Their
+opponents availed themselves of this interval also. But that which now
+embarrassed them, was the evidence contained in the privy council
+report. They had no idea, considering the number of witnesses they had
+sent to be examined, that this evidence, when duly weighed, could by
+right reasoning have given birth to the sentiments which had been
+displayed in the speeches of the most distinguished members of the House
+of Commons, or to the contents of the propositions which had been laid
+upon their table. They were thunderstruck as it were by their own
+weakness; and from this time they were determined, if possible, to get
+rid of it as a standard for decision, or to interpose, every
+parliamentary delay in their power.
+
+On the 21st of May, the subject came again before the attention of the
+House. It was ushered in, as was expected, by petitions collected in the
+interim, and which were expressive of the frightful consequences which
+would attend the abolition of the Slave Trade. Alderman Newnham
+presented one from certain merchants in London; Alderman Watson another
+from certain merchants, mortgagees, and creditors of the sugar-islands;
+Lord Maitland, another from the planters of Antigua; Mr. Blackburne,
+another from certain manufacturers of Manchester; Mr. Gascoyne, another
+from the corporation of Liverpool; and Lord Penrhyn, others from
+different interested bodies in the same town.
+
+Mr. Wilberforce then moved the order of the day for the House to go into
+a committee of the whole house on the report of the privy council, and
+the several matters of evidence already upon the table relative to the
+Slave Trade.
+
+Mr. Alderman Sawbridge immediately arose, and asked Mr. Wilberforce if
+he meant to adduce any other evidence, besides that in the privy council
+report, in behalf of his propositions, or to admit other witnesses, if
+such could be found, to invalidate them. Mr. Wilberforce replied, that
+he was quite satisfied with the report on the table. It would establish
+all his propositions. He should call no witnesses himself; as to
+permission to others to call them, that must be determined by the House.
+
+This question and this answer gave birth immediately to great disputes
+upon the subject. Aldermen Sawbridge, Newnham, and Watson; Lords Penrhyn
+and Maitland; Messrs. Gascoyne, Marsham, and others, spoke against the
+admission of the evidence which had been laid upon the table. They
+contended that it was insufficient, defective, and contradictory; that
+it was _ex parte_ evidence; that it had been manufactured by ministers;
+that it was founded chiefly on hearsay, and that the greatest part of it
+was false; that it had undergone no cross-examination; that it was
+unconstitutional; and that, if they admitted it, they would establish a
+dangerous precedent, and abandon their rights. It was urged on the other
+hand by Mr. Courtenay, that it could not be _ex parte_ evidence, because
+it contained testimony on both sides of the question. The circumstance,
+also, of its being contradictory, which had been alleged against it,
+proved that it was the result of an impartial examination. Mr. Fox
+observed, that it was perfectly admissible. He called upon those, who
+took the other side of the question, to say why, if it was really
+inadmissible, they had not opposed it at first. It had now been a long
+time on the table, and no fault had been found with it. The truth was,
+it did not suit them; and they were determined by a side-wind, as it
+were, to put an end to the inquiry. Mr. Pitt observed, that, if
+parliament had previously resolved to receive no evidence on a given
+subject but from the privy council, such a resolution, indeed, would
+strike at the root of the privileges of the House of Commons; but it was
+absurd to suppose that the House could upon no occasion receive
+evidence, taken where it was most convenient to take it, and subject
+throughout to new investigation, if any one doubted its validity. The
+report of the privy council consisted, first, of calculations and
+accounts from the public offices; and, next, of written documents on the
+subject: both of which were just as authentic as if they had been laid
+upon the table of that House. The remaining part of it consisted of the
+testimony of living witnesses, all of whose names were published; so
+that if any one doubted their veracity, it was open to him to re-examine
+all or each of them. It had been said by adversaries that the report on
+the table was a weak and imperfect report, but would not these have the
+advantage of its weakness and imperfection? It was strange, when his
+honourable friend, Mr. Wilberforce, had said, "Weak and imperfect as the
+report may be thought to be, I think it strong enough to bear me out in
+all my propositions," that they, who objected to it, should have no
+better reason to give than this, "We object, because the ground of
+evidence on which you rest is too weak to support your cause." Unless it
+were meant to say (and the meaning seemed to be but thinly disguised)
+that the House ought to abandon the inquiry, he saw no reason whatever
+for not going immediately into a committee; and he wished gentlemen to
+consider whether it became the dignity of their proceedings to obstruct
+the progress of an inquiry, which the House had pledged itself to
+undertake. Their conduct, indeed, seemed extraordinary on this occasion.
+It was certainly singular that; while the report had been five weeks
+upon the table, no argument had been brought against its sufficiency;
+but that on the moment when the House was expected to come to an
+ultimate vote upon the subject, it should be thought defective,
+contradictory, unconstitutional, and otherwise objectionable. These
+objections, he was satisfied, neither did nor could originate with the
+country gentlemen; but they were brought forward; for purposes not now
+to be concealed, by the avowed enemies of this noble cause.
+
+In the course of the discussion which arose upon this subject, every
+opportunity was taken to impress the House with the dreadful
+consequences of the abolition! Mr. Heriniker read a long letter from the
+King of Dahomey to George the First, which had been found among the
+papers of James, first Duke of Chandos, and which had remained in the
+family till that time. In this, the King of Dahomey boasted of his
+victory over the King of Ardrah and how he had ornamented the pavement
+and walls of his palace with the heads of the vanquished. These
+cruelties, Mr. Henniker said, were not imputable to the Slave Trade.
+They showed the Africans to be naturally a savage people, and that we
+did them a great kindness by taking them from their country. Alderman
+Sawbridge maintained that, if the abolition passed, the Africans who
+could not be sold as slaves would be butchered at home; while those who
+had been carried, to our islands would be no longer under control. Hence
+insurrections, and the manifold evils which belonged to them. Alderman
+Newnham was certain that the abolition would be the ruin of the trade of
+the country. It would affect even the landed interest and the funds. It
+would be impossible to collect money to diminish the national debt.
+Every man in the kingdom would feel the abolition come home to hit.
+Alderman Watson maintained the same argument, and pronounced the trade
+under discussion to be a merciful and humane trade.
+
+Compensation was also insisted upon by Mr. Drake, Alderman Newnham, Mr.
+Senniker, Mr. Cruger, and others. This was resisted by Mr. Burke; who
+said, that compensation in such a case would be contrary to every
+principle of legislation. Government gave encouragement to any branch of
+commerce while it was regarded as conducive to the welfare of the
+community; or compatible with humanity and justice; but they were
+competent to withdraw their countenance from it, when it was found to be
+immoral, and injurious, and disgraceful to the state: They who engaged
+in it knew the terms under which they were placed, and adopted it with
+all the risks with which it was accompanied; and of consequence it was
+but just, that they should be prepared to abide by the loss which might
+accrue, when the public should think it right no longer to support it.
+But such a trade as this it was impossible any longer to support. Indeed
+it was not a trade. It was a system of robbery. It was a system, too,
+injurious to the welfare of other nations. How could Africa ever be
+civilized under it? While we continued to purchase the natives, they
+must remain in a state of barbarism. It was impossible to civilize
+slaves. It was contrary to the system of human nature. There was no
+country placed under such disadvantageous circumstances, into which the
+shadow of improvement had ever been introduced.
+
+Great pains were taken to impress the house with the propriety of
+regulation. Sir Grey Cooper; Aldermen Sawbridge, Watson, and Newnham;
+Mr. Marsham, and Mr. Cruger, contended strenuously for it instead of
+abolition. It was also stated, that the merchants would consent to any
+regulation of the trade which might be offered to them.
+
+In the course of the debate much warmth of temper was manifested on both
+sides. The expression of Mr. Fox in a former debate, "that the Slave
+Trade could not be regulated, because there could be no regulation of
+robbery and murder," was brought up, and construed by planters in the
+house as a charge of these crimes upon themselves. Mr. Fox, however,
+would not retract the expression. He repeated it. He had no notion,
+however, that any individual would have taken it to himself. If it
+contained any reflection at all, it was on the whole parliament, who had
+sanctioned such a trade. Mr. Molyneux rose up, and animadverted severely
+on the character of Mr. Ramsay, one of the evidences in the privy
+council report, during his residence in the West Indies. This called up
+Sir William Dolben and Sir Charles Middleton in his defence, the latter
+of whom bore honourable testimony to his virtues from an intimate
+acquaintance with him, and a residence in the same village with him, for
+twenty years. Mr. Molyneux spoke also in angry terms of the measure of
+abolition. To annihilate the trade, he said, and to make no compensation
+on account of it, was an act of swindling. Mr. Macnamara called the
+measure hypocritical, fanatic, and methodistical. Mr. Pitt was so
+irritated at the insidious attempt to set aside the privy council
+report, when no complaint had been alleged against it before, that he
+was quite off his guard, and he thought it right afterwards to apologize
+for the warmth into which he had been betrayed. The Speaker, too, was
+obliged frequently to interfere. On this occasion no less than thirty
+members spoke. And there had probably been few seasons, when so much
+disorder had been discoverable in that house.
+
+The result of the debate was, a permission to those interested in the
+continuance of the Slave Trade to bring counsel to the bar on the 26th
+of May, and then to introduce such witnesses, as might throw further
+light on the propositions in the shortest time: for Mr. Pitt only
+acquiesced in this new measure on a supposition, "that there would be no
+unnecessary delay, as he could by no means submit to the ultimate
+procrastination of so important a business." He even hoped (and in this
+hope he was joined by Mr. Fox) that those concerned would endeavour to
+bring the whole of the evidence they meant to offer at the first
+examination.
+
+On the day appointed, the house met for the purposes now specified; when
+Alderman Newnham, thinking that such an important question should not be
+decided but in a full assembly of the representatives of the nation,
+moved for a call of the House on that day fortnight. Mr. Wilberforce
+stated that he had no objection to such a measure; believing the greater
+the number present the more favourable it would be to his cause. This
+motion, however, produced a debate and a division, in which it appeared
+that there were one hundred and fifty-eight in favour of it, and
+twenty-eight against it. The business of the day now commenced. The
+house went into a committee, and Sir William Dolben was put into the
+chair. Mr. Serjeant Le Blanc was then called in. He made an able speech
+in behalf of his clients; and introduced John Barnes, Esquire, as his
+first witness, whose examination took up the remainder of the day. By
+this step they who were interested in the continuance of the trade,
+attained their wishes, for they had now got possession of the ground
+with their evidence; and they knew they could keep it, almost as long as
+they pleased, for the purposes of delay. Thus they, who boasted, when
+the privy council examinations began, that they would soon do away all
+the idle tales which had been invented against them, and who desired the
+public only to suspend their judgment till the report should come out,
+when they would see the folly and wickedness of all our allegations,
+dared not abide by the evidence which they themselves had taught others
+to look up to as the standard by which they were desirous of being
+judged: thus they, who had advantages beyond measure in forming a body
+of evidence in their own favour, abandoned that which they had
+collected. And here it is impossible for me not to make a short
+comparative statement on this subject, if it were only to show how
+little can be made out, with the very best opportunities, against the
+cause of humanity and religion. With respect to ourselves, we had almost
+all our witnesses to seek. We had to travel after them for weeks
+together. When we found them, we had scarcely the power of choice. We
+where obliged to take them as they came. When we found them, too, we had
+generally to implore them to come forward in our behalf. Of those so
+implored, three out of four refused, and the plea for this refusal was a
+fear lest they should injure their own interests. The merchants, on the
+other hand, had their witnesses ready on the spot. They had always ships
+in harbour, containing persons who had a knowledge of the subject, they
+had several also from whom to choose. If one man was favourable to their
+cause in three of the points belonging to it, but was unfavourable in
+the fourth, he could be put aside and replaced. When they had thus
+selected them, they had not to entreat, but to command their attendance.
+They had no fear, again, when they thus commanded, of a refusal on the
+ground of interest; because these were promoting their interest by
+obliging these who employed them. Viewing these and other circumstances,
+which might be thrown into this comparative statement, it was some
+consolation to us to know, amidst the disappointment which this new
+measure occasioned, and our apparent defeat in the eyes of the public,
+that we had really beaten our opponents at their own weapons, and that,
+as this was a victory in our own private feelings, so it was the presage
+to us of a future triumph.
+
+On the 29th of May, Mr. Tierney made a motion to divide the
+consideration of the Slave Trade into two heads, by separating the
+African from the West Indian part of the question. This he did for the
+more clear discussion of the propositions, as well as to save time. This
+motion, however, was overruled by Mr. Pitt.
+
+At length, on the 9th of June, by which time it was supposed that new
+light, and this in sufficient quantity, would have been thrown upon the
+propositions, it appeared that only two witnesses had been fully heard.
+The examinations, therefore, were continued, and they went on till the
+23rd. On this day, the order for the call of the house, which had been
+prolonged, standing unrepealed, there was a large attendance of members.
+A motion was then made, to get rid of the business altogether, but it
+failed. It was now seen, however, that it was impossible to bring the
+question to a final decision in this session; for they who were
+interested in it, affirmed that they had yet many important witnesses to
+introduce. Alderman Newnham, therefore, by the consent of Mr.
+Wilberforce, moved that "the further consideration of the subject be
+deferred to the next session." On this occasion, Mr. William Smith
+remarked, that though the decision on the great question was thus to be
+adjourned, he hoped the examinations at least would be permitted to go
+on. He had not heard any good reason why they might not be carried on
+for some weeks  longer. It was known that the hearing of evidence was,
+at all times thinly attended. If, therefore, the few members who did
+attend, were willing to give up their time a little longer, why should
+other members complain of an inconvenience in the suffering of which
+they took no share? He thought that by this the examination of witnesses
+on the part of the merchants might be finished, and of consequence the
+business brought into a very desirable state of forwardness against the
+ensuing session. These observations had not the desired effect, and the
+motion of Mr. Alderman Newnham was carried without a division. Thus the
+great question, for the elucidation of which all the new evidences were
+to be heard at the very first examination, in order that it might be
+decided by the 9th of June, was, by the intrigue of our opponents,
+deferred to another year.
+
+The order of the day for going into the further consideration of the
+Slave Trade having been discharged, Sir William Dolben rose to state,
+that it was his intention to renew his bill of the former year, relative
+to the conveyance of the unhappy Africans from their own country to the
+West Indies, and to propose certain alterations in it. He made a motion
+accordingly, which was adopted; and he and Mr. Wilberforce were desired
+to prepare the same.
+
+This bill he introduced soon afterwards, and it passed; but not without
+opposition. It was a matter, however, of great pleasure to find that the
+worthy baronet was enabled by the assistance of Captain (afterwards
+Admiral) Macbride, and other naval officers in the house, to carry such
+clauses, as provided in some degree for the comfort of the poor seamen
+who were seduced into this wicked trade. They could not, indeed, provide
+against the barbarity of their captains; but they secured them a space
+under the half deck in which to sleep. They prescribed a form of
+muster-rolls, which they were to see and sign in the presence of the
+clearing officer. They regulated their food, both as to kind and
+quantity; and they preserved them from many of the impositions to which
+they had been before exposed.
+
+From the time when Mr. Wilberforce gave his first notice this session to
+the present, I had been variously employed, but more particularly in the
+composition of a new work. It was soon perceived to be the object of our
+opponents, to impress upon the public the preference, of regulation to
+abolition. I attempted, therefore, to show the fallacy and wickedness of
+this notion. I divided the evils belonging to the Slave Trade into two
+kinds. These I enumerated in their order. With respect to those of the
+first kind, I proved that they were never to be remedied by any acts of
+the British parliament. Thus, for instance, what bill could alter the
+nature of the human passions? What bill could prevent fraud and violence
+in Africa, while the Slave Trade existed there? What bill could prevent
+the miserable victims of the trade from rising, when on board the ships,
+if they saw an opportunity, and felt a keen sense of their oppression?
+Those of the second I stated to admit of a remedy, and after making
+accurate calculations on the subject of each, I showed that those
+merchants who were to do them away effectually, would be ruined by their
+voyages. The work was called _An Essay on the Comparative Efficiency of
+Regulation or Abolition as applied to the Slave Trade_.
+
+The committee, also, in this interval, brought out their famous print of
+the plan and section of a slave-ship, which was designed to give the
+spectator an idea of the sufferings of the Africans in the Middle
+Passage, and this so familiarly, that he might instantly pronounce upon
+the miseries experienced there. The committee at Plymouth had been the
+first to suggest the idea; but that in London had now improved it. As
+this print seemed to make an instantaneous impression of horror upon all
+who saw it, and as it was therefore very instrumental, in consequence of
+the wide circulation given it, in serving the cause of the injured
+Africans, I have given the reader a copy of it in the annexed plate, and
+I will now state the ground or basis upon which it was formed.
+
+It must be obvious that it became the committee to select some one ship,
+which had been engaged in the Slave Trade, with her real dimensions, if
+they meant to make a fair representation of the manner of the
+transportation. When Captain Parrey, of the royal navy, returned from
+Liverpool, to which place Government had sent him, he brought with him
+the admeasurement of several vessels which had been so employed, and
+laid them on the table of the House of Commons. At the top of his list
+stood the ship Brookes. The committee, therefore, in choosing a vessel
+on this occasion, made use of the ship Brookes; and this they did,
+because they thought it less objectionable to take the first that came,
+than any other. The vessel, then, in the plate is the vessel now
+mentioned, and the following is her admeasurement as given in by Captain
+Parrey.
+
+                                                                    Ft.  In.
+Length of the lower deck, gratings, and bulk heads included at A A  100  0
+Breadth of beam on the lower deck inside, B B                       25   4
+Depth of hold ooo, from ceiling to ceiling                          10   0
+Height between decks from deck to deck                              5    8
+Length of the men's room, C C, on the lower deck                    46   0
+Breadth of the men's room, C C, on the lower deck                   25   4
+Length of the platform, D D, in the men's room                      46   0
+Breadth of the platform in the men's room, on each side             6    0
+Length of the boys' room, E E                                       13   9
+Breadth of the boys' room                                           25   0
+Breadth of platform, F F, in boys' room                             6    0
+Length of women's room, G G                                         28   6
+Breadth of women's room                                             23   6
+Length of platform, H H, in women's room                            28   6
+Breadth of platform in women's room                                 6    0
+Length of the gun-room, I I, on the lower deck                      10   6
+Breadth of the gun-room on the lower deck                           12   0
+Length of the quarter-deck, K K                                     33   6
+Breadth of the quarter-deck                                         19   6
+Length of the cabin, L L                                            14   0
+Height of the cabin                                                 6    2
+Length of the half-deck, M M                                        16   6
+Height of the half-deck                                             6    2
+Length of the platform, N N, on the half-deck                       16   6
+Breadth of the platform on the half-deck                            6    0
+Upper deck, P P
+
+
+The committee, having proceeded thus far, thought that they should now
+allow certain dimensions for every man, woman, and child; and then see
+how many persons, upon such dimensions and upon the admeasurements just
+given, could be stowed in this vessel. They allowed, accordingly, to
+every man slave 6 ft. by 1 ft. 4in. for room, to every woman 5 ft. by 1
+ft. 4 in., to every boy 5 ft. by 1 ft. 2 in., and to every girl 4 ft. 6
+in. by 1 ft. They then stowed them, and found them as in the annexed
+plate, that is, they found, (deducting the women stowed in z of figures
+6 and 7, which spaces, being half of the half-deck, were allowed by Sir
+William Dolben's last bill to the seamen,) that only 450 could be stowed
+in her; and the reader will find, if he should think it worthwhile to
+count the figures in the plate, that, on making the deduction mentioned,
+they will amount to this number.
+
+The committee then thought it right to inquire how many slaves the act
+of Sir William Dolben allowed this vessel to carry, and they found the
+number to be 454; that is, they found it allowed her to carry four more
+than could be put in without trespassing upon the room allotted to the
+rest; for we see that the bodies of the slaves, except just at the head
+of the vessel, already touch each other, and that no deduction has been
+made for tubs or stanchions to support the platforms and decks.
+
+[Illustration: Slave Ship]
+
+[Illustration: Slave Ship]
+
+[Illustration: Slave Ship]
+
+[Illustration: Slave Ship]
+
+Such was the picture which the committee were obliged to draw, if they
+regarded mathematical accuracy, of the room allotted to the slaves in
+this vessel. By this picture was exhibited the nature of the Elysium
+which Mr. Norris and others had invented for them during their
+transportation from their own country. By this picture were seen also
+the advantages of Sir William Dolben's bill; for many, on looking at the
+plate, considered the regulation itself as perfect barbarism. The
+advantages, however, obtained by it were considerable; for the Brookes
+was now restricted to 450 slaves, whereas it was proved that she carried
+609 in a former voyage.
+
+The committee, at the conclusion of the session of parliament, made a
+suitable report. It will be unnecessary to detail this, for obvious
+reasons. There was, however, one thing contained in it, which ought
+not to be omitted. It stated, with appropriate concern, the death of
+the first controversial writer, and of one of the most able and
+indefatigable labourers in their cause. Mr. Ramsay had been for some
+time indisposed. The climate of the West Indies, during a residence of
+twenty years, and the agitation in which his mind had been kept for
+the last four years of his life, in consequence of the virulent
+attacks on his word and character by those interested in the
+continuance of the trade, had contributed to undermine his
+constitution. During his whole illness he was cheerful and composed;
+nor did he allow it to hinder him, severe as it was, from taking any
+opportunity which offered, of serving those unhappy persons for whose
+injuries he had so deeply felt. A few days only before he died, I
+received from him probably the last letter he ever wrote, of which the
+following is an extract:
+
+    "My health has certainly taken a most alarming turn; and, if
+    some considerable alteration does not take place for the
+    better in a very little time, it will be all over with me: I
+    mean as to the present life. I have lost all appetite, and
+    suffer grievously from an almost continual pain in my
+    stomach, which leaves me no enjoyment of myself, but such as
+    I can collect from my own reflections, and the comforts of
+    religion. I am glad the bill for the abolition is in such
+    forwardness. Whether it goes through the house or not, the
+    discussion attending it will have a most beneficial effect.
+    The whole of this business I think now to be in such a train,
+    as to enable me to bid farewell to the present scene with the
+    satisfaction of not having lived in vain, and of having done
+    something towards the improvement of our common nature; and
+    this at no little expense of time and reputation. The little
+    I have now written is my utmost effort; yet yesterday I
+    thought it necessary to write an answer to a scurrilous libel
+    in _The Diary_ by one Scipio. On my own account he should
+    have remained unnoticed; but our great cause must be kept
+    unsullied."
+
+Mr. Ramsay was a man of active habit, of diligence and perseverance in
+his undertakings, and of extraordinary application. He was of mild and
+humble manners. He possessed a strong understanding, with great
+coolness and courage. Patriotism and public spirit were striking
+traits in his character. In domestic life he was amiable: in the
+ministry, exemplary and useful; and he died to the great regret of his
+parishioners; but most of all to that of those who moved with him in
+his attempts to bring about the important event of the abolition of
+the Slave Trade.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+Continuation from July 1789 to July 1790.--Author travels to Paris to
+promote the abolition in France; attends the committees of the Friends
+of the Negroes.--Counter-attempts of the committee of White
+Colonists.--An account of the deputies of Colour.--Meeting at the Duke
+de la Rochefoucauld's.--Mirabeau espouses the cause; canvasses the
+National Assembly.--Distribution of the section of the slave-ship
+there.--Character of Brissot.--Author leaves Paris and returns to
+England.--Examination of merchants' and planters' evidence resumed in
+the House of Commons.--Author travels in search of evidence in favour
+of the abolition; opposition to the hearing of it.--This evidence is
+at length introduced.--Renewal of Sir William Dolben's
+bill.--Distribution of the section of the slave-ship in England; and
+of Cowper's Negro's Complaint; and of Wedgewood's Cameos.
+
+
+We usually find, as we give ourselves up to reflection, some little
+mitigation of the afflictions we experience; and yet of the evils
+which come upon us, some are often so heavy as to overpower the
+sources of consolation for a time, and to leave us wretched. This was
+nearly our situation at the close of the last session of parliament.
+It would be idle not to confess that circumstances had occurred which
+wounded us deeply. Though we had foiled our opponents at their own
+weapons, and had experienced the uninterrupted good wishes and support
+of the public, we had the great mortification to see the enthusiasm of
+members of parliament beginning to cool; to see a question of humanity
+and justice (for such it was when it was delivered into their hands)
+verging towards that of commercial calculation; and finally to see
+regulation, as it related to it, in the way of being substituted for
+abolition; but most of all were we affected, knowing as we did the
+nature and the extent of the sufferings belonging to the Slave Trade,
+that these should be continued to another year. This last
+consideration almost overpowered me. It had fallen to my lot, more
+than to that of any other person, to know these evils, and I seemed
+almost inconsolable at the postponement of the question. I wondered
+how members of parliament, and these Englishmen, could talk as they
+did on this subject; how they could bear for a moment to consider
+their fellow-man as an article of trade; and how they should not count
+even the delay of an hour, which occasioned so much misery to
+continue, as one of the most criminal actions of their lives.
+
+It was in vain, however, to sink under our burdens. Grief could do no
+good; and if our affairs had taken an unfavourable turn, the question
+was, how to restore them. It was sufficiently obvious that, if our
+opponents were left to themselves, or without any counteracting
+evidence, they would considerably soften down the propositions, if not
+invalidate them in the minds of many. They had such a power of selection
+of witnesses, that they could bring men forward who might say with truth
+that they had seen but very few of the evils complained of, and these in
+an inferior degree. We knew, also, from the example of the Liverpool
+delegates, how interest and prejudice could blind the eyes, and how
+others might be called upon to give their testimony, who would dwell
+upon the comforts of the Africans when they came into our power; on the
+sprinkling of their apartments with frankincense; on the promotion of
+music and the dance among them; and on the health and festivity of their
+voyages. It seemed, therefore, necessary that we should again be looking
+out for evidence on the part of the abolition. Nor did it seem to me to
+be unreasonable, if our opponents were allowed to come forward in a new
+way, because it was more constitutional, that we should be allowed the
+same privilege. By these means the evidence, of which we had now lost
+the use, might be restored; indifference might be fanned into warmth;
+commercial calculation might be overpowered by justice; and abolition,
+rising above the reach of the cry of regulation, might eventually
+triumph.
+
+I communicated my ideas to the committee, and offered to go round the
+kingdom to accomplish this object. The committee had themselves been
+considering what measures to take, and as each in his own mind had come
+to conclusions similar with my own, my proposal was no sooner made than
+adopted.
+
+I had not been long upon this journey when I was called back. Mr.
+Wilberforce, always solicitous for the good of this great cause, was of
+opinion that, as commotions had taken place in France, which then aimed
+at political reforms, it was possible that the leading persons concerned
+in them might, if an application were made to them judiciously, be
+induced to take the Slave Trade into their consideration, and
+incorporate it among the abuses to be done away. Such a measure, if
+realized, would not only lessen the quantity of human suffering, but
+annihilate a powerful political argument against us. He had a
+conference, therefore, with the committee on this subject; and, as they
+accorded with his opinion, they united with him in writing a letter to
+me, to know if I would change my journey, and proceed to France.
+
+As I had no object in view but the good of the cause, it was immaterial
+to me where I went, if I could but serve it; and therefore, without any
+further delay, I returned to London.
+
+As accounts had arrived in England of the excesses which had taken place
+in the city of Paris, and of the agitated state of the provinces through
+which I was to pass, I was desired by several of my friends to change my
+name. To this I could not consent; and, on consulting the committee,
+they were decidedly against it.
+
+I was introduced as quickly as possible, on my arrival at Paris, to the
+friends of the cause there, to the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, the Marquis
+de Condorcet, Messieurs Petion de Villeneuve, Claviere, and Brissot, and
+to the Marquis de la Fayette. The latter received me with peculiar marks
+of attention. He had long felt for the wrongs of Africa, and had done
+much to prevent them. He had a plantation in Cayenne, and had devised a
+plan, by which the labourers upon it should pass by degrees from slavery
+to freedom! With this view he had there laid it down as a principle,
+that all crimes were equal, whether they were committed by Blacks or
+Whites, and ought equally to be punished. As the human mind is of such a
+nature, as to be acted upon by rewards as well as punishments, he
+thought it unreasonable, that the slaves should have no advantage from a
+stimulus from the former. He laid it down therefore as another
+principle, that temporal profits should follow virtuous action. To this
+he subjoined a reasonable education to be gradually given. By
+introducing such principles, and by making various regulations for the
+protection and comforts of the slaves, he thought he could prove to the
+planters, that there was no necessity for the Slave Trade; that the
+slaves upon all their estates would increase sufficiently by population;
+that they might be introduced gradually, and without detriment, to a
+state of freedom; and that then the real interests of all would be most
+promoted. This system he had began to act upon two years before I saw
+him. He had also, when the society was established in Paris, which took
+the name of "The Friends of the Negroes," enrolled himself a member of
+it.
+
+The first public steps taken after my arrival in Paris were at a
+committee of the Friends of the Negroes, which was but thinly attended.
+None of those mentioned, except Brissot, were present. It was resolved
+there, that the committee should solicit an audience of Mr. Necker; and
+that I should wait upon him, accompanied by a deputation consisting of
+the Marquis de Condorcet, Monsieur de Bourge, and Brissot de Warville:
+secondly, that the committee should write to the president of the
+National Assembly, and request the favour of him to appoint a day for
+hearing the cause of the Negroes; and thirdly, that it should be
+recommended to the committee in London to draw up a petition to the
+National Assembly of France, praying for the abolition of the Slave
+Trade by that country. This petition, it was observed, was to be signed
+by as great a number of the friends to the cause in England, as could be
+procured. It was then to be sent to the committee at Paris, who would
+take it in a body to the place of its destination.
+
+I found great delicacy as a stranger in making my observations upon
+these resolutions, and yet I thought I ought not to pass them over
+wholly in silence, but particularly the last. I therefore rose up, and
+stated that there was one resolution, of which I did not quite see the
+propriety; but this might arise from my ignorance of the customs, as
+well as of the genius and spirit of the French people. It struck me that
+an application from a little committee in England to the National
+Assembly of France was not a dignified measure, nor was it likely to
+have weight with such a body. It was, besides, contrary to all the
+habits of propriety in which I had been educated. The British Parliament
+did not usually receive petitions from the subjects of other nations. It
+was this feeling which had induced me thus to speak.
+
+To these observations it was replied, that the National Assembly of
+France would glory in going contrary to the example of other nations in
+a case of generosity and justice, and that the petition in question, if
+it could be obtained, would have an influence there, which the people of
+England, unacquainted with the sentiments of the French nation, would
+hardly credit.
+
+To this I had only to reply, that I would communicate the measure to the
+committee in London, but that I could not be answerable for the part
+they would take in it.
+
+By an answer received from Mr. Necker, relative to the first of these
+resolutions, it appeared that the desired interview had been obtained;
+but he granted it only for a few minutes, and this principally to show
+his good-will to the cause: for he was then so oppressed with business
+in his own department, that he had but little time for any other. He
+wrote to me, however, the next day, and desired my company to dinner. He
+then expressed a wish to me, that any business relative to the Slave
+Trade might be managed by ourselves as individuals, and that I would
+take the opportunity of dining with him occasionally for this purpose.
+By this plan, he said, both of us would save time. Madame Necker, also,
+promised to represent her husband, if I should call in his absence, and
+to receive me, and converse with me on all occasions in which this great
+cause of humanity and religion might be concerned.
+
+With respect to the other resolutions, nothing ever came of them; for we
+waited daily for an answer from the president during the whole of his
+presidency, but we never received any; and the committee in London, when
+they had read my letter, desired me unequivocally to say, that they did
+not see the propriety of the petition which it had been recommended to
+them to obtain.
+
+At the next meeting it was resolved, that a letter should be written to
+the new president for the same purpose as the former. This, it was said,
+was now rendered essentially necessary; for the merchants, planters, and
+others interested in the continuance of the Slave Trade, were so alarmed
+at the enthusiasm of the French people in favour of the new order of
+things, and of any change recommended to them, which had the appearance
+of prompting the cause of liberty, that they held daily committees to
+watch and to thwart the motions of the friends of the Negroes. It was
+therefore thought proper, that the appeal to the Assembly should be
+immediate on this subject, before the feelings of the people should
+cool, or before they, who were thus interested, should poison the minds
+by calculations of loss and gain. The silence of the former president
+was already attributed to the intrigues of the planters' committee. No
+time therefore was to be lost. The letter was accordingly written, but
+as no answer was ever returned to it, they attributed this second
+omission to the same cause.
+
+I do not really know whether interested persons ever did, as was
+suspected, intercept the letters of the committee to the two presidents
+as now surmised; or whether they ever dissuaded them from introducing so
+important a question for discussion, when the nation was in such a
+heated state; but certain it is, that we had many, and I believe
+barbarous, enemies to encounter. At the very next meeting of the
+committee, Claviere produced anonymous letters which he had received,
+and in which it was stated that, if the society of the Friends of the
+Negroes did not dissolve itself, he and the rest of them would be
+stabbed. It was said that no less than three hundred persons had
+associated themselves for this purpose. I had received similar letters
+myself; and on producing mine, and comparing the handwriting in both it
+appeared that the same persons had written.
+
+In a few days after this, the public prints were filled with the most
+malicious representations of the views of the committee. One of them
+was, that they were going to send twelve thousand muskets to the Negroes
+in St. Domingo, in order to promote an insurrection there. This
+declaration was so industriously circulated, that a guard of soldiers
+was sent to search the committee-room; but these were soon satisfied
+when they found only two or three books and some waste paper. Reports
+equally unfounded and wicked were spread also in the same papers
+relative to myself. My name was mentioned at full length, and the place
+of my abode hinted at. It was stated at one time, that I had proposed
+such wild and mischievous plans to the committee in London relative to
+the abolition of the Slave Trade, that they had cast me out of their own
+body, and that I had taken refuge in Paris, where I now tried to impose
+equally on the French nation. It was stated at another, that I was
+employed by the British government as a spy, and that it was my object
+to try to undermine the noble constitution which was then forming for
+France. This latter report, at this particular time, when the passions
+of men were so inflamed, and when the stones of Paris had not been long
+purified from the blood of Foulon and Berthier, might have cost me my
+life; and I mentioned it to General la Fayette, and solicited his
+advice. He desired me to make a public reply to it: which I did. He
+desired me also to change my lodging to the Hotel de Yorck, that I might
+be nearer to him; and to send to him if there should be any appearance
+of a collection of people about the hotel, and I should have aid from
+the military in his quarter. He said, also, that he would immediately
+give in my name to the Municipality; and that he would pledge himself to
+them, that my views were strictly honourable.
+
+On dining one day at the house of the Marquis de la Fayette, I met the
+deputies of colour. They had arrived only the preceding day from St.
+Domingo, I was desired to take my seat at dinner in the midst of them.
+They were six in number; of a sallow or swarthy complexion, but yet it
+was not darker than that of some of the natives of the south of France.
+They were already in the uniform of the Parisian National Guards; and
+one of them wore the cross of St. Louis. They were men of genteel
+appearance and modest behaviour. They seemed to be well informed, and of
+a more solid cast than those whom I was in the habit of seeing daily in
+this city. The account which they gave of themselves was this. The white
+people of St. Domingo consisting of less than ten thousand persons, had
+deputies then sitting in the National Assembly. The people of colour in
+the same island greatly exceeded the whites in number. They amounted to
+thirty thousand, and were generally proprietors of lands. They were
+equally free by law with the former, and paid their taxes to the
+mother-country in an equal proportion. But in consequence of having
+sprung from slaves they had no legislative power, and moreover were
+treated with great contempt. Believing that the mother-country was going
+to make a change in its political constitution, they had called a
+meeting on the island, and this meeting had deputed them to repair to
+France, and to desire the full rights of citizens, or that the free
+people of colour might be put upon an equality with the whites. They
+(the deputies) had come in consequence. They had brought with them a
+present of six millions of livres to the National Assembly, and an
+appointment to General la Fayette to be commander-in-chief over their
+constituents, as a distinct body. This command, they said, the general
+had accepted, though he had declined similar honours from every town in
+France, except Paris, in order to show that he patronized their cause.
+
+I was now very anxious to know the sentiments which these gentlemen
+entertained on the subject of the Slave Trade. If they were with us,
+they might be very useful to us; not only by their votes in the
+Assembly, but by the knowledge of facts which they would be able to
+adduce there in our favour. If they were against us, it became me to be
+upon my guard against them, and to take measures accordingly. I
+therefore stated to them at once the nature of my errand to France, and
+desired their opinion upon it. This they gave me without reserve. They
+broke out into lavish commendations of my conduct, and called me their
+friend. The Slave Trade, they said, was the parent of all the miseries
+in St. Domingo, not only on account of the cruel treatment it occasioned
+to the slaves, but on account of the discord which it constantly kept up
+between the whites and people of colour, in consequence of the hateful
+distinctions it introduced. These distinctions could never be
+obliterated while it lasted. Indeed both the trade and the slavery must
+fall, before the infamy, now fixed upon a skin of colour, could be so
+done away, that whites and blacks could meet cordially, and look with
+respect upon one another. They had it in their instructions, in case
+they should obtain a seat in the Assembly, to propose, an immediate
+abolition of the Slave Trade, and an immediate amelioration of the state
+of slavery also, with a view to its final abolition in fifteen years.
+
+But time was flying apace; I had now been nearly seven weeks in Paris,
+and had done nothing. The thought of this made me uneasy, and I saw no
+consoling prospect before me. I found it even difficult to obtain a
+meeting of the Friends of the Negroes. The Marquis de la Fayette had no
+time to attend. Those of the committee, who were members of the National
+Assembly, were almost constantly engaged at Versailles. Such of them as
+belonged to the Municipality, had enough to do at the Hotel deVille.
+Others were employed either in learning the use of arms, or in keeping
+their daily and nightly guards. These circumstances made me almost
+despair of doing anything for the cause at Paris, at least in any
+reasonable time. But a new circumstance occurred, which distressed me
+greatly; for I discovered, in the most satisfactory manner, that two out
+of the six at the last committee were spies. They had come into the
+society for no other reason than to watch and report its motions; and
+they were in direct correspondence with the slave-merchants at Havre de
+Grace. This matter I brought home to them afterwards, and I had the
+pleasure of seeing them excluded from all our future meetings.
+
+From this time I thought it expedient to depend less upon the committee,
+and more upon my own exertions; and I formed the resolution of going
+among the members of the National Assembly myself, and of learning from
+their own mouths the hope I ought to entertain relative to the decision
+of our question. In the course of my endeavours I obtained a promise
+from the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, the Comte de Mirabeau the Abbe
+Sieyes, Monsieur Bergasse, and Monsieur Petion de Villeneuve, five of
+the most approved members of the National Assembly, that they would meet
+me if I would fix a day. I obtained a similar promise from the Marquis
+de Condorcet, and Claviere and Brissot, as members selected from the
+committee of the Friends of the Negroes. And Messieurs de Roveray and Du
+Monde, two Genevese gentlemen at Versailles, men of considerable
+knowledge and interest, and who had heard of our intended meeting, were
+to join us at their own request. The place chosen was the house of the
+Bishop of Chartres at Versailles.
+
+I was now in hope that I should soon bring the question to some issue;
+and on the 4th of October I went to dine with the Bishop of Chartres to
+fix the day. We appointed the 7th. But how soon, frequently, do our
+prospects fade! From the conversation which took place at dinner, I
+began to fear that our meeting would not be realised. About three days
+before, the officers of the Garde du Corps had given the memorable
+banquet, recorded in the annals of the revolution, to the officers of
+the regiment of Flanders, which then lay at Versailles. This was a topic
+on which the company present dwelt. They condemned it as a most fatal
+measure in these heated times; and were apprehensive that something
+would grow immediately out of it, which might endanger the king's
+safety. In passing afterwards through the streets of Versailles my fears
+increased. I met several of that regiment in groups. Some were
+brandishing their swords. Others were walking arm in arm, and singing
+tumultuously. Others were standing and conversing earnestly together.
+Among the latter I heard one declare with great vehemence, "that it
+should not be; that the revolution must go on." On my arrival at Paris
+in the evening, the Palais Royal was full of people; and there were
+movements and buzzings among them, as if something was expected to
+happen. The next day, when I went into the streets, it was obvious what
+was going to take place. Suffice it to say, that the next evening the
+king and queen were brought prisoners into Paris. After this, things
+were in such an unsettled state for a few days, and the members of the
+National Assembly were so occupied in the consideration of the event
+itself, and of the consequences which might attend it, that my little
+meeting, of which it had cost me so much time and trouble to procure the
+appointment, was entirely prevented.
+
+I had now to wait patiently till a new opportunity should occur. The
+Comte de Mirabeau, before the departure of the king, had moved, and
+carried the resolution, that "the Assembly was inseparable from his
+majesty's person." It was expected, therefore, that the National
+Assembly would immediately transfer its sittings to Paris. This took
+place on the 19th. It was now more easy for me to bring persons
+together, than when I had to travel backward and forward to Versailles.
+Accordingly, by watching my opportunities, I obtained the promise of
+another meeting. This was held afterwards at the Duke de la
+Rochefoucauld's. The persons before mentioned were present; except the
+Comte de Mirabeau, whose occupations at that moment made it utterly
+impossible for him to attend.
+
+The duke opened the business in an appropriate manner; and concluded, by
+desiring each person to give his opinion frankly and unequivocally as to
+what might be expected of the National Assembly relative to the great
+measure of the abolition of the Slave Trade.
+
+The Abbe Sieyes rose up, and said it would probably bring the business
+within a shorter compass if, instead of discussing this proposition at
+large, I were to put to the meeting my own questions. I accordingly
+accepted this offer, and began by asking those present "how long it was
+likely that the present National Assembly would sit?" After some
+conversation, it was replied that "it would sit till it had completed
+the constitution, and interwoven such fixed principles into it, that the
+legislature which should succeed it might have nothing more to do than
+to proceed on the ordinary business of the state. Its dissolution would
+probably not take place till the month of March."
+
+I then asked them, "whether it was their opinion that the National
+Assembly would feel itself authorized to take up such a foreign question
+(if I might be allowed the expression) as that of the abolition of the
+Slave Trade." The answer to this was, "that the object of the National
+Assembly was undoubtedly the formation of a constitution for the French
+people. With respect to foreign possessions, it was very doubtful
+whether it were the real interest of France to have any colonies at all;
+but while it kept such colonies under its dominion, the assembly would
+feel that it had the right to take up this question; and that the
+question itself would naturally spring out of the bill of rights, which
+had already been adopted as the basis of the constitution."
+
+The next question I proposed was, "whether they were of opinion that the
+National Assembly would do more wisely, in the present situation of
+things, to determine upon the abolition of the Slave Trade now, or to
+transfer it to the legislature, which was to succeed it in the month of
+March."
+
+This question gave birth to a long discussion, during which much
+eloquence was displayed; but the unanimous answer, with the reasons for
+it, may be conveyed in substance as follows:--"It would be most wise,"
+it was said, "in the present Assembly, to introduce the question to the
+notice of the nation, and this as essentially connected with the bill of
+rights, but to transfer the determination of it, in a way the best
+calculated to ensure success, to the succeeding legislature. The
+revolution was of more importance to Frenchmen than the abolition of the
+Slave Trade. To secure this was their first object, and more
+particularly because the other would naturally flow from it; but the
+revolution might be injured by the immediate determination of the
+question. Many persons in the large towns of Bourdeaux, Marseilles,
+Rouen, Nantes, and Havre, who were now friends to it, might be converted
+into enemies. It would also be held up by those who wished to produce a
+counter-revolution, (and the ignorant and prejudiced might believe it,)
+that the Assembly had made a great sacrifice to England by thus giving
+her an opportunity of enlarging her trade. The English House of Commons
+had taken up the subject, but had done nothing; and though they, who
+were then present, were convinced of the sincerity of the English
+minister who had introduced it, and that the trade must ultimately fall
+in England, yet it would not be easy to persuade many bigoted persons in
+France of these truths. It would, therefore, be most wise in the
+Assembly only to introduce the subject as mentioned; but if
+extraordinary circumstances should arise, such as a decree that the
+deputies of Colour should take their seats in the Assembly, or that
+England should have begun this great work, advantage might be taken of
+them, and the abolition of the Slave Trade might be resolved upon in the
+present session."
+
+The last question I proposed was this:--"If the determination of this
+great question should be proposed to the next legislature, would it be
+more difficult to carry it then than now?"
+
+This question also produced much conversation; but the answer was
+unanimous, "that there would be no greater difficulty in the one than in
+the other case; for that the people would daily more and more admire
+their constitution; that this constitution would go down to the next
+legislature, from whence would issue solid and fixed principles, which
+would be resorted to as a standard for decision on all occasions. Hence
+the Slave Trade, which would be adjudged by it also, could not possibly
+stand. Add to which, that the most virtuous members in the present would
+be chosen into the new legislature, which, if the constitution were but
+once fairly established, would not regard the murmurs of any town or
+province." After this a desultory conversation took place, in which some
+were of opinion that it would be proper, on the introduction of the
+subject into the Assembly, to move for a committee of inquiry, which
+should collect facts and documents against the time when it should be
+taken up with a view to its final discussion.
+
+As it now appeared to me that nothing material would be done with
+respect to our cause till after the election of the new legislature, I
+had thoughts of returning to England to resume my journey in quest of
+evidence; but I judged it right to communicate first with the Comte de
+Mirabeau and the Marquis de la Fayette, both of whom would have attended
+the meeting just mentioned, if unforeseen circumstances had not
+prevented them.
+
+On conversing with the first, I found that he differed from those whom I
+had consulted. He thought that the question, on account of the nature
+and urgency of it, ought to be decided in the present legislature. This
+was so much his opinion, that he had made a determination to introduce
+it there himself; and had been preparing for his motion. He had already
+drawn up the outlines of a speech for the purpose; but was in want of
+circumstantial knowledge to complete it. With this knowledge he desired
+me to furnish him. He then put his speech into my hand, and wished me to
+take it home and peruse it. He wrote down, also, some questions, and he
+gave them to me directly afterwards, and begged I would answer them at
+my leisure.
+
+On conversing with the latter, he said, "that he believed with those of
+the meeting that there would be no greater difficulty in carrying the
+question in the succeeding than in the present legislature; but this
+consideration afforded an argument for the immediate discussion of it;
+for it would make a considerable difference to suffering humanity
+whether it were to be decided now or then. This was the moment to be
+taken to introduce it; nor did he think that they ought to be deterred
+from doing it by any supposed clamours from some of the towns in France.
+The great body of the people admired the constitution, and would support
+any decisions which were made in strict conformity to its principles.
+With respect to any committee of inquiry, he deprecated it. The Slave
+Trade, he said, was not a trade. It dishonoured the name of commerce. It
+was piracy. But if so, the question which it involved was a question of
+justice only; and it could not be decided, with propriety by any other
+standard." I then informed him that the Comte de Mirabeau had undertaken
+to introduce it into the Assembly. At this he expressed his uneasiness.
+"Mirabeau," says he, "is a host in himself; and I should not be
+surprised if by his own eloquence and popularity only he were to carry
+it; and yet I regret that he has taken the lead in it. The cause is so
+lovely that even ambition, abstractedly considered, is too impure to
+take it under its protection, and not to sully it. It should have been
+placed in the hands of the most virtuous man in France. This man is the
+Duc de la Rochefoucauld. But you cannot alter things now. You cannot
+take it out of his hands. I am sure he will be second to no one on this
+occasion."
+
+On my return to my hotel, I perused the outlines of the speech which the
+Comte de Mirabeau had lent me. It afforded a masterly knowledge of the
+evils of the trade, as drawn from reason only. It was put together in
+the most striking and affecting manner. It contained an almost
+irresistible appeal to his auditors by frequent references to the
+ancient system of things in France, and to their situation and prospects
+under the new. It flowed at first gently like a river in a level
+country; but it grew afterwards into a mountain-torrent, and carried
+everything before it. On looking at the questions which he had written
+down for me, I found them consist of three. 1. What are the different
+ways of reducing to slavery the inhabitants of that part of Africa which
+is under the dominion of France? 2. What is the state of society there
+with respect to government, industry, and the arts? 3. What are the
+various evils belonging to the transportation of the Africans from their
+own country?
+
+It was peculiarly agreeable to me to find, on reading the first two
+questions, that I had formed an acquaintance with Monsieur Geoffroy de
+Villeneuve, who had been aide-du-camp to the Chevalier de Boufflers at
+Goree; but who was then at his father's house in Paris. This gentleman
+had entertained Dr. Spaarman and Mr. Wadstrom; and had accompanied them
+up the Senegal, when under the protection of the French government in
+Africa. He had confirmed to me the testimony which they had given before
+the privy council: but he had a fund of information on this subject,
+which went far beyond what these possessed, or I had ever yet collected
+from books or men. He had travelled all over the kingdom of Cayor on
+foot; and had made a map of it. His information was so important, that I
+had been with him for almost days together to take it down. I
+determined, therefore, to arrange the facts which I had obtained from
+him, of which I had now a volume, that I might answer the two first
+questions, which had been proposed to me; for it was of great importance
+to the Comte de Mirabeau, that he should be able to appeal, in behalf of
+the statements in his speech to the Assembly, to an evidence on the
+spot.
+
+In the course of my correspondence with the Comte, which continued with
+but little intermission for six weeks, many circumstances took place,
+which were connected with the cause, and which I shall now detail in
+their order.
+
+On waiting upon Mr. Necker, at his own request, he gave me the pleasing
+intelligence, that the committee of finances, which was then composed of
+members of the National Assembly, had resolved, though they had not yet
+promulgated their resolution, upon a total abolition of all the bounties
+then in existence in favour of the Slave Trade.
+
+The Deputies of Colour now began to visit me at my own hotel. They
+informed me, that they had been admitted, since they had seen me, into
+the National Assembly. On stating their claims, the president assured
+them, that they might take courage; for that the assembly knew no
+distinction between Blacks and Whites, but considered all men as having
+equal rights. This speech of the president, they said, had roused all
+the White Colonists in Paris. Some of these had openly insulted them.
+They had held also a meeting on the subject of this speech; at which
+they had worked themselves up so as to become quite furious. Nothing but
+intrigue was now going forward among them to put off the consideration
+of the claims of the free People of Colour. They, the deputies, had been
+flattered by the prospect of a hearing no less than six times; and, when
+the day arrived, something had constantly occurred to prevent it.
+
+At a subsequent interview, they appeared to be quite disheartened; and
+to be grievously disappointed as to the object of their mission. They
+were now sure, that they should never be able to make head against the
+intrigues and plots of the White Colonists. Day after day had been fixed
+as before for the hearing of their cause. Day after day it had been
+deferred in like manner. They were now weary with waiting. One of them,
+Oge, could not contain himself, but broke out with great warmth--"I
+begin," says he, "not to care whether the National Assembly will admit
+us or not. But let it beware of the consequences. We will no longer
+continue to be beheld in a degraded light. Dispatches shall go directly
+to St. Domingo; and we will soon follow them. We can produce as good
+soldiers on our estates, as those in France. Our own arms shall make us
+independent and respectable. If we are once forced to desperate
+measures, it will be in vain that thousands will be sent across the
+Atlantic to bring us back to our former state." On hearing this, I
+entreated the deputies, to wait with patience. I observed to them, that
+in a great revolution, like that of France, things, but more
+particularly such as might be thought external, could not be discussed
+either so soon or so rapidly as men full of enthusiasm would wish.
+France would first take care of herself. She would then, I had no doubt,
+extend her care to her Colonies. Was not this a reasonable conclusion,
+when they, the deputies, had almost all the first men in the Assembly in
+their favour? I entreated them therefore to wait patiently; as well as
+upon another consideration, which was, that by an imprudent conduct they
+might not only ruin their own cause in France, but bring indescribable
+misery upon their native land.
+
+By this time a large packet, for which I had sent, from England arrived.
+It consisted of above a thousand of the plan and section of a
+slave-ship, with an explanation in French. It contained, also, about
+five hundred coloured engravings, made from two views, which Mr.
+Wadstrom had taken in Africa. The first of these represented the town of
+Joal, and the king's military on horseback returning to it, after having
+executed the great pillage, with their slaves. The other represented the
+village of Bain; from whence ruffians were forcing a poor woman and her
+children to sell them to a ship, which was then lying in the Roads. Both
+these scenes Mr. Wadstrom had witnessed. I had collected, also, by this
+time, one thousand of my Essays on the _Impolicy of the Slave Trade_,
+which had been translated into the French language. These I now wished
+to distribute, as preparatory to the motion of Mirabeau, among the
+National Assembly. This distribution was afterwards undertaken and
+effected by the Archbishop of Aix, the Bishop of Chartres, the Marquis
+de la Fayette, the Duc de la Rochefoucauld, the Comte de Mirabeau,
+Monsieur Necker, the Marquis de Condorcet, Messieurs Petion de
+Villeneuve, Bergasse, Claviere and Brissot, and by the Marchioness de la
+Fayette, Madame Necker, and Madame de Poivre, the latter of whom was the
+widow of the late intendant of the Isle of France.
+
+This distribution had not been long begun, before I witnessed its
+effects. The virtuous Abbe Gregoire, and several members of the National
+Assembly, called upon me. The section of the slave-ship, it appeared,
+had been the means of drawing them towards me. They wished for more
+accurate information concerning it. Indeed, it made its impression upon
+all who saw it. The Bishop of Chartres once told me, that, when he first
+espoused our cause, he did it at once; for it seemed obvious to him that
+no one could, under the Christian dispensation, hold another as his
+slave; and it was no less obvious, where such an unnatural state
+existed, that there would be great abuses; but that, nevertheless, he
+had not given credit to all the tales which had been related of the
+Slave Trade, till he had seen this plate; after which there was nothing
+so barbarous which might not readily be believed. The Archbishop of Aix,
+when I first showed him the same plate, was so struck with horror, that
+he could scarcely speak: and when Mirabeau first saw it, he was so
+impressed by it, that he ordered a mechanic to make a model of it in
+wood, at a considerable expense. This model he kept afterwards in his
+dining-room. It was a ship in miniature, about a yard long, and little
+wooden men and women, which were painted black to represent the slaves,
+were seen stowed in their proper places.
+
+But while the distribution of these different articles thus contributed
+to make us many friends, it called forth the extraordinary exertions of
+our enemies. The merchants and others interested in the continuance of
+the Slave Trade wrote letters to the Archbishop of Aix, beseeching him
+not to ruin France; which he would inevitably do, if, as then president,
+he were to grant a day for hearing the question of the abolition. Offers
+of money were made to Mirabeau from the same quarter, if he would
+totally abandon his motion. An attempt was made to establish a colonial
+committee, consisting of such planters as were members of the National
+Assembly, upon whom it should devolve to consider and report upon all
+matters relating to the Colonies, before they could be determined there.
+Books were circulated in abundance in opposition to mine. Resort was
+again had to the public papers, as the means of raising a hue and cry
+against the principles of the Friends of the Negroes. I was again
+denounced as a spy; and as one sent by the English minister to bribe
+members in the Assembly to do that in a time of public agitation, which
+in the settled state of France they could never have been prevailed upon
+to accomplish. And as a proof that this was my errand, it was requested
+of every Frenchman to put to himself the following question, "How it
+happened that England, which had considered the subject coolly and
+deliberately for eighteen months, and this in a state of internal peace
+and quietness, had not abolished the Slave Trade?"
+
+The clamour which was now made against the abolition pervaded all Paris,
+and reached the ears of the king; Mr. Necker had a long conversation
+with him upon it; the latter sent for me immediately. He informed me
+that His Majesty was desirous of making himself master of the question,
+and had expressed a wish to see my _Essay on the Impolicy of the Slave
+Trade_; he desired to have two copies of it, one in French, and the
+other in English, and he would then take his choice as to which of them
+he would read; he (Mr. Necker) was to present them. He would take with
+him, also, at the same time, the beautiful specimens of the manufactures
+of the Africans, which I had lent to Madame Necker out of the cabinet of
+Monsieur Geoffroy de Villeneuve and others; as to the section of the
+slave-ship, he thought it would affect His Majesty too much, as he was
+then indisposed. All these articles, except the latter, were at length
+presented; the king bestowed a good deal of time upon the specimens; he
+admired them, but particularly those in gold. He expressed his surprise
+at the state of some of the arts in Africa. He sent them back on the
+same day on which he had examined them, and commissioned Mr. Necker to
+return me his thanks, and to say that he had been highly gratified with
+what he had seen; and with respect to the _Essay on the Impolicy of the
+Slave Trade_, that he would read it with all the seriousness which such
+a subject deserved.
+
+My correspondence with the Comte de Mirabeau was now drawing near to its
+close. I had sent him a letter every other day for a whole month, which
+contained from sixteen to twenty pages; he usually acknowledged the
+receipt of each; hence many of his letters came into my possession:
+these were always interesting, on account of the richness of the
+expressions they contained. Mirabeau even in his ordinary discourse was
+eloquent; it was his peculiar talent to use such words, that they who
+heard them were almost led to believe that he had taken great pains to
+cull them for the occasion. But this his ordinary language was the
+language also of his letters; and as they show a power of expression, by
+which the reader may judge of the character of the eloquence of one, who
+was then undoubtedly the greatest orator in France, I have thought it
+not improper to submit one of them to his perusal in the annexed
+note[A]. I could have wished, as far as it relates to myself, that it
+had been less complimentary. It must be observed, however, that I had
+already written to him more than two hundred pages with my own hand; and
+as this was done at no small expense, time, and trouble, and solely to
+qualify him for the office of doing good, he could not but set some
+value upon my labours.
+
+[Footnote A: Je fais toujours mille remercimens plus empresses et plus
+affectueux a Monsieur Clarkson pour la vertueuse profusion de ses
+lumieres, de ses recherches, et de ses travaux. Comme ma motion, et tous
+ses developpemens sont entierement prets, j'attends avec une vive
+impatience ses nouvelles lettres, afin d'achever de classer les faits et
+les raisonnemens de Monsieur Clarkson, et, cette deduction entierement
+finie, de commencer a manoeuvrer en tactique le succes douteux de cette
+perilleuse proposition. J'aurai l'honneur de le recevoir Dimanche depuis
+onze heures, et meme dix du matin jusqu'a midi, non seulement avec un
+vif plaisir, mais avec une sensible reconnaissance. 25_th__Decembre_,
+1789.]
+
+When our correspondence was over, I had some conversation with him
+relative to fixing a day for the motion. But he judged it prudent,
+previously to this, to sound some of the members of the Assembly on the
+subject of it. This he did, but he was greatly disappointed at the
+result; there was not one member, out of all those with whom he
+conversed, who had not been canvassed by the planters' committee; and
+though most of them had been proof against all its intrigues and
+artifices, yet many of them hesitated respecting the abolition at that
+moment. There was a fear in some that they should injure the revolution
+by adopting it; others, who had no such fears, wished for the
+concurrence of England in the measure, and suggested the propriety of a
+deputation there for that purpose previously to the discussion of the
+question in France. While others maintained that, as England had done
+nothing, after having had it so long under consideration, it was fair to
+presume that she judged it impolitic to abandon the Slave Trade; but if
+France were to give it up, and England to continue it, how would
+humanity be the gainer?
+
+While the Comte de Mirabeau was continuing his canvass among the members
+of the National Assembly, relative to his motion, attempts were again
+made in the public papers to mislead them; emancipation was now stated
+to be the object of the friends of the negroes. This charge I repelled,
+by addressing myself to Monsieur Beauvet. I explained to him the views
+of the different societies which had taken up the cause of the Africans;
+and I desired him to show my letter to the planters. I was obliged also
+to answer publicly a letter by Monsieur Mosneron de Laung. This writer
+professed to detail the substance of the privy council report. He had
+the injustice to assert that three things had been distinctly proved
+there: First, that slavery had always existed in Africa; Secondly, that
+the natives were a bloody people, addicted to human sacrifice, and other
+barbarous customs; and, Thirdly, that their soil was incapable of
+producing any proper articles for commerce. From these premises he
+argued, as if they had been established by the unanimous and
+uncontradicted testimony of the witnesses; and he drew the conclusion,
+that not only had England done nothing in consequence, but that she
+never would do anything which should affect the existence of this trade.
+
+But these letters had only just made their appearance in the public
+papers, when I was summoned to England; parliament, it appeared, had
+met, and I was immediately to leave Paris. Among those of whom I had but
+just time to take leave, were the deputies of colour. At this, my last
+conference with them, I recommended moderation and forbearance, as the
+best gifts I could leave them; and I entreated them rather to give up
+their seats in the Assembly, than on that account to bring misery on
+their country; for that with patience their cause would ultimately
+triumph. They replied, that I had prescribed to them a most difficult
+task; they were afraid that neither the conduct of the white colonists
+nor of the National Assembly could be much longer borne; they thanked
+me, however, for my advice. One of them gave me a trinket, by which I
+might remember him; and as for himself, he said he should never forget
+one, who had taken such a deep interest in the welfare of his mother[A].
+I found, however, notwithstanding all I said, that there was a spirit of
+dissatisfaction in them, which nothing but a redress of their grievances
+could subdue; and that, if the planters should persevere in their
+intrigues, and the National Assembly in delay, a fire would be lighted
+up in St. Domingo, which could not easily be extinguished. This was
+afterwards realized: for Oge, in about three months from this time, left
+his companions, to report to his constituents in St. Domingo the state
+of their mission; when hearing, on his arrival in that island, of the
+outrageous conduct of the whites of the committee of Aquin, who had
+begun a persecution of the people of colour, for no other reason than
+that they had dared to seek the common privileges of citizens, and of
+the murder of Ferrand and Labadie, he imprudently armed his slaves. With
+a small but faithful band he rushed upon superior numbers, and was
+defeated; taking refuge at length in the Spanish part of St. Domingo, he
+was given up, and his enemies, to strike terror into the people of
+colour, broke him upon the wheel. From this time reconciliation between
+the parties became impossible; a bloody war commenced, and with it all
+those horrors which it has been our lot so frequently to deplore. It
+must be remembered, however, that the Slave Trade, by means of the cruel
+distinctions it occasioned, was the original cause; and though the
+revolution of France afforded the occasion, it was an occasion which
+would have been prevented, if it had not been for the intrigues and
+injustice of the whites.
+
+[Footnote A: Africa.]
+
+Another upon whom I had time to call was the amiable bishop of Chartres.
+When I left him, the Abbe Sieyes, who was with him, desired to walk with
+me to my hotel; he there presented me with a set of his works, which he
+sent for while he staid with me; and, on parting, he made use of this
+complimentary expression, in allusion, I suppose, to the cause I had
+undertaken,--"I am pleased to have been acquainted with the friend of
+man."
+
+It was necessary that I should see the Comte de Mirabeau and the Marquis
+de la Fayette before I left Paris, I had written to each of them to
+communicate the intelligence of my departure, as soon as I received it.
+The comte, it appeared had nearly canvassed the Assembly; he could count
+upon three hundred members, who, for the sake of justice, and without
+any consideration of policy or of consequences, would support his
+motion. But alas! what proportion did this number bear to twelve
+hundred! About five hundred more would support him, but only on one
+condition, which was, if England would give an unequivocal proof of her
+intention to abolish the trade. The knowledge of these circumstances, he
+said, had induced him to write a letter to Mr. Pitt. In this he had
+explained how far he could proceed without his assistance, and how far
+with it. He had frankly developed to him the mind and temper of the
+Assembly on this subject; but his answer must be immediate, for the
+white colonists were daily gaining such an influence there, that he
+forsaw that it would be impossible to carry the measure, if it were long
+delayed. On taking leave of him he desired me to be the bearer of the
+letter, and to present it to Mr. Pitt.
+
+On conversing with the Marquis de la Fayette, he lamented deeply the
+unexpected turn which the cause of the Negroes had lately taken in the
+Assembly. It was entirely owing to the daily intrigues of the White
+Colonists. He feared they would ruin everything. If the Deputies of
+Colour had been heard on their arrival, their rights would have been
+acknowledged. But now there was little probability that they would
+obtain them. He foresaw nothing but desolation in St. Domingo. With
+respect to the abolition of the Slave Trade, it might be yet carried;
+but not unless England would concur in the measure. On this topic he
+enlarged with much feeling. He hoped the day was near at hand, when two
+great nations, which had been hitherto distinguished only for their
+hostility, one toward the other, would unite in so sublime a measure;
+and that they would follow up their union by another, still more lovely,
+for the preservation of eternal and universal peace. Thus their future
+rivalships might have the extraordinary merit of being rivalships in
+good. Thus the revolution of France, through the mighty aid of England,
+might become the source of civilization, of freedom, and of happiness to
+the whole world. No other nations were sufficiently enlightened for such
+an union, but all other nations might be benefited by it.
+
+The last person whom I saw was Brissot. He accompanied me to my
+carriage. With him, therefore, I shall end my French account; and I
+shall end it in no way so satisfactory to myself, as in a very concise
+vindication of his character, from actual knowledge, against the attacks
+of those who have endeavoured to disparage it; but who never knew him.
+Justice and truth, I am convinced, demand some little declaration on
+this subject at my hands. Brissot then was a man of plain and modest
+appearance. His habits, contrary to those of his countrymen in general,
+were domestic. In his own family he set an amiable example, both as a
+husband and as a father. On all occasions he was a faithful friend. He
+was particularly watchful over his private conduct. From the simplicity
+of his appearance, and the severity of his morals, he was called "The
+Quaker;" at least in all the circles which I frequented. He was a man of
+deep feeling. He was charitable to the poor as far as a slender income
+permitted him. But his benevolence went beyond the usual bounds. He was
+no patriot in the ordinary acceptation of the word; for he took the
+habitable globe as his country and wished to consider every foreigner as
+his brother.
+
+I left France, as it may be easily imagined, much disappointed, that my
+labours, which had been of nearly six months continuance, should have
+had no better success; nor did I see, in looking forward, any
+circumstances that were consoling with respect to the issue of them
+there; for it was impossible that Mr. Pitt, even if he had been inclined
+to write to Mirabeau, circumstanced as matters then were with respect to
+the hearing of evidence, could have given him a promise, at least of a
+speedy abolition; and, unless his answer had been immediate, it would
+have arrived, seeing that the French planters were daily profiting by
+their intrigues, too late to be effectual.
+
+I had but just arrived in England, when Mr. Wilberforce made a new
+motion in the House of Commons on the subject of the Slave Trade. In
+referring to the transactions of the last session, he found that
+twenty-eight days had been allotted to the hearing of witnesses against
+the abolition, and that eleven persons only had been examined in that
+time. If the examinations were to go on in the same manner, they might
+be made to last for years. He resolved, therefore, to move, that,
+instead of hearing evidence in future in the house at large, members
+should hear it in an open committee above stairs; which committee should
+sit notwithstanding any adjournment of the house itself. This motion he
+made; and in doing it he took an opportunity of correcting an erroneous
+report; which was, that he had changed his mind on this great subject.
+This was, he said, so far from being the case, that the more he
+contemplated the trade, the more enormous he found it, and the more he
+felt himself compelled to persevere in endeavours for its abolition.
+
+One would have thought that a motion, so reasonable and so
+constitutional, would have met with the approbation of all; but it was
+vehemently opposed by Mr. Gascoyne, Alderman Newnham, and others. The
+plea set up was, that there was no precedent for referring a question of
+such importance to a committee. It was now obvious, that the real object
+of our opponents in abandoning decision by the privy council evidence
+was delay. Unable to meet us there, they were glad to fly to any
+measure, which should enable them to put off the evil day. This charge
+was fixed upon them in unequivocal language by Mr. Fox; who observed
+besides, that if the members of the house should then resolve to hear
+evidence in a committee of the whole house as before, it would amount to
+a resolution, that the question of the abolition of the Slave Trade
+should be put by, or at least that it should never be decided by them.
+After a long debate, the motion of Mr. Wilberforce was voted without a
+division; and the examination of witnesses proceeded in behalf of those
+who were interested in the continuance of the trade.
+
+This measure having been resolved upon, by which despatch in the
+examinations was promoted, I was alarmed lest we should be called upon
+for our own evidence, before we were fully prepared. The time which I
+had originally allotted for the discovery of new witnesses, had been
+taken up, if not wasted, in France. In looking over the names of the
+sixteen, who were to have been examined by the committee of privy
+council, if there had been time, one had died, and eight, who were
+sea-faring people, were out of the kingdom. It was time, therefore, to
+stir immediately in this business. Happily, on looking over my letters,
+which I found on my arrival in England, the names of several had been
+handed to me, with the places of their abode, who could give me
+information on the subject of our question. All these I visited with the
+utmost despatch. I was absent only three weeks. I had travelled a
+thousand miles in this time, had conversed with seventeen persons, and
+had prevailed upon three to be examined.
+
+I had scarcely returned with the addition of these witnesses to my list,
+when I found it necessary to go out again upon the same errand. This
+second journey arose in part from the following circumstances. There was
+a matter in dispute relative to the mode of obtaining slaves in the
+rivers of Calabar and Bonny. It was usual, when the slave-ships lay
+there, for a number of canoes to go into the inland country. These went
+in a fleet. There might be from thirty to forty armed natives in each of
+them. Every canoe, also, had a four or a six-pounder (cannon) fastened
+to her bow. Equipped in this manner they departed; and they were usually
+absent from eight to fourteen days. It was said that they went to fairs,
+which were held on the banks of these rivers, and at which there was a
+regular show of slaves. On their return they usually brought down from
+eight hundred to a thousand of these for the ships. These lay at the
+bottom of the canoes; their arms and legs having been first bound by the
+ropes of the country. Now the question was, how the people, thus going
+up these rivers, obtained their slaves?
+
+It was certainly a very suspicious circumstance, that such a number of
+persons should go out upon these occasions; and that they should be
+armed in such a manner. We presumed, therefore, that, though they might
+buy many of the slaves, whom they brought down, at the fairs which have
+been mentioned, they obtained others by violence, as opportunity
+offered. This inference we pressed upon our opponents, and called upon
+them to show what circumstances made such warlike preparations necessary
+on these excursions. To this they replied readily, "The people in the
+canoes," said they, "pass through the territories of different petty
+princes; to each of whom, on entering his territory, they pay a tribute
+or toll. This tribute has been long fixed; but attempts frequently have
+been made to raise it. They who follow the trade cannot afford to submit
+to these unreasonable demands; and therefore they arm themselves in case
+of any determination on the part of these petty princes to enforce
+them." This answer we never judged to be satisfactory. We tried
+therefore, to throw light upon the subject, by inquiring if the natives
+who went upon these expeditions usually took with them as many goods as
+would amount to the number of the slaves they were accustomed to bring
+back with them. But we could get no direct answer, from any actual
+knowledge, to this question. All had seen the canoes go out and return;
+but no one had seen them loaded, or had been on board them. It appeared,
+however, from circumstantial evidence, that though the natives on these
+occasions might take some articles of trade with them, it was impossible
+from appearances that they could take them in the proportion mentioned.
+We maintained, then, our inference as before; but it was still uniformly
+denied.
+
+How then were we to decide this important question? for it was said that
+no white man was ever permitted by the natives to go up in these canoes.
+On mentioning accidentally the circumstances of the case, as I have now
+stated them, to a friend, immediately on my return from my last journey,
+he informed me that he himself had been in company, about a year before,
+with a sailor, a very respectable-looking man, who had been up these
+rivers. He had spent half an hour with him at an inn. He described his
+person to me; but he knew nothing of his name, or of the place of his
+abode. All he knew was, that he was either going, or that he belonged
+to, some ship of war in ordinary; but he could not tell at what port. I
+might depend upon all these circumstances if the man had not deceived
+him; and he saw no reason why he should.
+
+I felt myself set on fire, as it were, by this intelligence, deficient
+as it was; and I seemed to determine instantly that I would, if it were
+possible, find him out. For if our suspicions were true that the natives
+frequently were kidnapped in these expeditions, it would be of great
+importance to the cause of the abolition to have them confirmed; for as
+many slaves came annually from these two rivers, as from all the coast
+of Africa besides. But how to proceed on so blind an errand was the
+question. I first thought of trying to trace the man by letter; but this
+might be tedious. The examinations were now going on rapidly. We should
+soon be called upon for evidence ourselves; besides, I knew nothing of
+his name. I then thought it to be a more effectual way to apply to Sir
+Charles Middleton, as comptroller of the navy, by whose permission I
+could board every ship of war in ordinary in England, and judge for
+myself. But here the undertaking seemed very arduous, and the time it
+would consume became an objection in this respect, that I thought I
+could not easily forgive myself, if I were to fail in it. My
+inclination, however, preponderated this way. At length I determined to
+follow it; for, on deliberate consideration, I found that I could not
+employ my time more advantageously to the cause; for as other witnesses
+must be found out somewhere, it was highly probable that, if I should
+fail in the discovery of this man, I should, by moving among such a
+number of sea-faring people, find others who could give their testimony
+in our favour.
+
+I must now inform the reader, that ships of war in ordinary, in one of
+which this man was reported to be, are those which are out of
+commission, and which are laid up in the different rivers and waters in
+the neighbourhood of the king's dock-yards. Every one of these has a
+boatswain, gunner, carpenter, and assistants on board. They lie usually
+in divisions of ten or twelve; and a master in the navy has a command
+over every division.
+
+At length I began my journey. I boarded all the ships of war lying in
+ordinary at Deptford, and examined the different persons in each. From
+Deptford I proceeded to Woolwich, where I did the same. Thence I
+hastened to Chatham, and then, down the Medway, to Sheerness. I had now
+boarded above a hundred and sixty vessels of war. I had found out two
+good and willing evidences among them; but I could gain no intelligence
+of him who was the object of my search.
+
+From Chatham I made the best of my way to Portsmouth harbour. A very
+formidable task presented itself here; but the masters' boats were ready
+for me, and I continued my pursuit. On boarding the Pegase, on the
+second day, I discovered a very respectable person in the gunner of that
+ship. His name was George Millar. He had been on board the Canterbury
+slaveship at the dreadful massacre at Calabar. He was the only
+disinterested evidence living, of whom I had yet heard. He expressed his
+willingness to give, his testimony, if his presence should be thought
+necessary in London. I then continued my pursuit for the remainder of
+the day. On the next day I resumed and finished it for this quarter. I
+had now examined the different persons in more than a hundred vessels in
+this harbour, but I had not discovered the person I had gone to seek.
+
+Matters now began to look rather disheartening, I mean as far as my
+grand object was concerned. There was but one other port left, and this
+was between two and three hundred miles distant. I determined, however,
+to go to Plymouth. I had already been more successful in this tour, with
+respect to obtaining general evidences than in any other of the same
+length; and the probability was, that as I should continue to move among
+the same kind of people, my success would be in a similar proportion
+according to the number visited. These were great encouragements to me
+to proceed. At length I arrived at the place of my last hope. On my
+first day's expedition I boarded forty vessels, but found no one in
+these who had been on the coast of Africa in the Slave Trade. One or two
+had been there in king's ships; but they had never been on shore. Things
+were now drawing near to a close; and, notwithstanding my success as to
+general evidence in this journey, my heart began to beat. I was restless
+and uneasy during the night. The next morning I felt agitated again
+between the alternate pressure of hope and fear; and in this state I
+entered my boat. The fifty-seventh vessel, which I boarded in this
+harbour was the Melampus frigate. One person belonging to it, on
+examining him in the captain's cabin, said he had been two voyages to
+Africa; and I had not long discoursed with him before I found, to my
+inexpressible joy, that he was the man. I found, too, that he unravelled
+the question in dispute precisely as our inferences had determined it.
+He had been two expeditions up the river Calabar in the canoes of the
+natives. In the first of these, they came within a certain distance of a
+village. They then concealed themselves under the bushes, which hung
+over the water from the banks. In this position they remained during
+day-light; but at night they went up to it armed, and seized all the
+inhabitants, who had not time to make their escape. They obtained
+forty-five persons in this manner. In the second, they were out eight or
+nine days, when they made a similar attempt, and with nearly similar
+success. They seized men, women, and children, as they could find them
+in the huts. They then bound their arms, and drove them before them to
+the canoes. The name of the person, thus discovered on board the
+Melampus, was Isaac Parker. On inquiring into his character from the
+master of the division, I found it highly respectable. I found, also,
+afterwards, that he had sailed with Captain Cook, with great credit to
+himself, round the world. It was also remarkable that my brother, on
+seeing him in London, when he went to deliver his evidence, recognised
+him as having served on board the Monarch man-of-war, and as one of the
+most exemplary men in that ship.
+
+I returned now in triumph. I had been out only three weeks, and I had
+found out this extraordinary person, and five respectable witnesses
+besides. These, added to the three discovered in the last journey, and
+to those provided before, made us more formidable than at any former
+period; so that the delay of our opponents, which we had looked upon as
+so great an evil, proved in the end truly serviceable to our cause.
+
+On going into the committee-room of the House of Commons on my return, I
+found that the examinations were still going on in the behalf of those
+who were interested in the continuance of the trade; and they went on
+beyond the middle of April, when it was considered that they had closed.
+Mr. Wilberforce moved accordingly, on the 23rd of the same month, that
+Captain Thomas Wilson, of the royal navy, and that Charles Berns
+Wadstrom and Henry Hew Dalrymple, Esqrs., do attend as witnesses on the
+behalf of the abolition. There was nothing now but clamour from those on
+the opposite side of the question. They knew well that there were but
+few members of the House of Commons, who had read the privy council
+report. They knew, therefore, that if the question were to be decided by
+evidence, it must be decided by that which their own witnesses had given
+before parliament. But this was the evidence only on one side. It was
+certain, therefore, if the decision were to be made upon this basis,
+that it must be entirely in their favour. Will it then be believed that
+in an English House of Commons there could be found persons, who could
+move to prevent the hearing of any other witnesses on this subject; and,
+what is more remarkable, that they should charge Mr. Wilberforce,
+because he proposed the hearing of them, with the intention solely of
+delay? Yes, such persons were found; but happily only among the friends
+of the Slave Trade. Mr. Wilberforce, in replying to them, could not help
+observing that it was rather extraordinary that they, who had occasioned
+the delay of a whole year, should charge him with that of which they
+themselves had been so conspicuously guilty. He then commented for some
+time on the injustice of their motion. He stated, too, that he would
+undertake to remove from disinterested and unprejudiced persons many of
+the impressions which had been made by the witnesses against the
+abolition; and he appealed to the justice and honour of the house in
+behalf of an injured people; under the hope that they would not allow a
+decision to be made till they had heard the whole of the case. These
+observations, however, did not satisfy all those who belonged to the
+opposite party. Lord Penrhyn contended for a decision without a moment's
+delay. Mr. Gascoyne relented; and said, he would allow three weeks to
+the abolitionists, during which their evidence might be heard. At
+length, the debate ended; in the course of which Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox
+powerfully supported Mr. Wilberforce; when the motion was negatived
+without any attempt at a division.
+
+The witnesses in behalf of the abolition of the Slave Trade now took
+possession of the ground which those in favour of it had left. But what
+was our surprise, when only three of them had been heard, to find that
+Mr. Norris should come forward as an evidence! This he did to confirm
+what he had stated to the privy council as to the general question; but
+he did it more particularly, as it appeared afterwards, in the
+justification of his own conduct: for the part which he had taken at
+Liverpool, as it related to me, had become a subject of conversation
+with many. It was now well known what assistance he had given me there
+in my pursuit; how he had even furnished me with clauses for a bill, for
+the abolition of the trade; how I had written to him, in consequence of
+his friendly co-operation, to come up as an evidence in our favour; and
+how at that moment he had accepted the office of a delegate on the
+contrary side. The noise which the relation and repetition of these and
+other circumstances had made, had given him, I believe, considerable
+pain. His friends, too, had urged some explanation as necessary. But how
+short-sighted are they who do wrong! By coming forward in this imprudent
+manner, he fixed the stain only the more indelibly on himself; for he
+thus imposed upon me the cruel necessity of being examined against him;
+and this necessity was the more afflicting, to me, because I was to be
+called upon not to state facts relative to the trade, but to destroy his
+character as an evidence in its support. I was to be called upon, in
+fact, to explain all those communications which have been stated to have
+taken place between us on this subject. Glad indeed should I have been
+to have declined this painful interference. But no one would hear of a
+refusal. The Bishop of London, Mr. Pitt, and Mr. Wilberforce considered
+my appearance on this occasion as an imperious duty to the cause of the
+oppressed. It may be perhaps sufficient to say that I was examined; that
+Mr. Norris was present all the time; that I was cross-examined by
+counsel; and, that after this time, Mr. Norris seemed to have no
+ordinary sense of his own degradation; for he never afterwards held up
+his head or looked the abolitionists in the face, or acted with energy
+as a delegate, as on former occasions.
+
+The hearing of evidence continued to go on in behalf of the abolition of
+the trade. No less than twenty-four witnesses altogether were heard in
+this session. And here it may not be improper to remark, that during the
+examination of our own witnesses, as well as the cross-examination of
+those of our opponents, no counsel were ever employed. Mr. Wilberforce
+and Mr. William Smith undertook this laborious department; and as they
+performed it with great ability, so they did it with great liberality
+towards those who were obliged to come under their notice, in the course
+of this fiery ordeal.
+
+The bill of Sir William Dolben was now to be renewed. On this occasion
+the enemies of the abolition became again conspicuous; for on the 26th
+of May, they availed themselves of a thin house to propose an amendment,
+by which they increased the number of the slaves to the tonnage of the
+vessel. They increased it, too, without taking into the account, as had
+hitherto been done, the extent of the superficies of the vessels which
+were to carry them. This was the third indecorous attempt against what
+were only reasonable and expected proceedings in the present session.
+But their advantage was of no great duration; for the very next day, the
+amendment was rejected on the report by a majority of ninety-five to
+sixty-nine, in consequence, principally, of the private exertions of Mr.
+Pitt. Of this bill, though it was renewed in other years besides the
+present, I shall say no more in this _History_; because it has nothing
+to do with the general question. Horrible as it yet left the situation
+of the poor slaves in their transportation, (which the plate has most
+abundantly shown,) it was the best bill which could be then obtained;
+and it answered to a certain degree the benevolent wishes of the worthy
+baronet who introduced it: for if we could conclude, that these voyages
+were made more comfortable to the injured Africans, in proportion as
+there was less mortality in them, he had undoubtedly the pleasure of
+seeing the end, at least partially, obtained; though he must always have
+felt a great drawback from it, by reflecting that the survivors, however
+their sufferings might have been a little diminished, were reserved for
+slavery.
+
+The session was now near its close; and we had the sorrow to find,
+though we had defeated our opponents in the three instances which have
+been mentioned, that the tide ran decidedly against us, upon the general
+question, in the House of Commons. The same statements which had struck
+so many members with panic in the former sessions, such as that of
+emancipation, of the ruin and massacre of the planters, and of
+indemnification to the amount of seventy millions, had been
+industriously kept up, and this by a personal canvass among them. But
+this hostile disposition was still unfortunately increased by
+considerations of another sort. For the witnesses of our opponents had
+taken their ground first. No less than eleven of them had been examined
+in the last sessions. In the present, two-thirds of the time had been
+occupied by others on the same side. Hence the impression upon this
+ground also was against us; and we had yet had no adequate opportunity
+of doing it away. A clamour was also raised, where we thought it least
+likely to have originated. They (the planters), it was said, had
+produced persons in elevated life, and of the highest character, as
+witnesses; whereas we had been obliged to take up with those of the
+lowest condition. This idea was circulated directly after the
+introduction of Isaac Parker, before mentioned, a simple mariner, and
+who was now contrasted with the admirals on the other side of the
+question. This outcry was not only ungenerous, but unconstitutional. It
+is the glory of the English law, that it has no scale of veracity which
+it adapts to persons, according to the station which they may be found
+to occupy in life. In our courts of law, the poor are heard as well as
+the rich; and if their reputation be fair, and they stand proof against
+the cross-examinations they undergo, both the judge and the jury must
+determine the matter in dispute by their evidence. But the House of
+Commons was now called upon by our opponents, to adopt the preposterous
+maxim of attaching falsehood to poverty, or of weighing truth by the
+standard of rank and riches.
+
+But though we felt a considerable degree of pain in finding this adverse
+disposition among so many members of the Lower House, it was some
+consolation to us to know that our cause had not suffered with their
+constituents,--the people. These were still warmly with us. Indeed,
+their hatred of the trade had greatly increased. Many circumstances had
+occurred in this year to promote it. The committee, during my absence in
+France, had circulated the plate of the slave-ship throughout all
+England. No one saw it but he was impressed. It spoke to him in a
+language which was at once intelligible and irresistible. It brought
+forth the tear of sympathy in behalf of the sufferers, and it fixed
+their sufferings in his heart. The committee, too, had been particularly
+vigilant during the whole of the year with respect to the public papers.
+They had suffered no statement in behalf of those interested in the
+continuance of the trade to go unanswered. Dr. Dickson, the author of
+the _Letters on Slavery_, before mentioned, had come forward again with
+his services on this occasion; and, by his active co-operation with a
+sub-committee appointed for the purpose, the coast was so well cleared
+of our opponents, that, though they were seen the next year again,
+through the medium of the same papers, they appeared only in sudden
+incursions, as it were, during which they darted a few weapons at us;
+but they never afterward ventured upon the plain to dispute the matter,
+inch by inch, or point by point, in an open and manly manner.
+
+But other circumstances occurred to keep up a hatred of the trade among
+the people in this interval, which, trivial as they were, ought not to
+be forgotten. The amiable poet Cowper had frequently made the Slave
+Trade the subject of his contemplation. He had already severely
+condemned it in his valuable poem _The Task_. But now he had written
+three little fugitive pieces upon it. Of these, the most impressive was
+that which he called _The Negro's Complaint_, and of which the following
+is a copy:--
+
+
+  Forced from home and all its pleasures,
+    Afric's coast I left forlorn,
+  To increase a stranger's treasures,
+    O'er the raging billows borne;
+  Men from England bought and sold me,
+    Paid my price in paltry gold;
+  But, though theirs they have enroll'd me,
+    Minds are never to be sold.
+
+  Still in thought as free as ever,
+    What are England's rights, I ask,
+  Me from my delights to sever,
+    Me to torture, me to task?
+  Fleecy locks and black complexion
+    Cannot forfeit Nature's claim;
+  Skins may differ, but affection
+    Dwells in black and white the same.
+
+  Why did all-creating Nature
+    Make the plant, for which we toil?
+  Sighs must fan it, tears must water,
+    Sweat of ours must dress the soil.
+  Think, ye masters, iron-hearted,
+    Lolling at your jovial boards,
+  Think, how many backs have smarted
+    For the sweets your cane affords.
+
+  Is there, as you sometimes tell us,
+    Is there one, who rules on high;
+  Has he bid you buy and sell us,
+    Speaking from his throne, the sky?
+  Ask him, if your knotted scourges,
+    Fetters, blood-extorting screws,
+  Are the means, which duty urges
+    Agents of his will to use?
+
+  Hark! he answers. Wild tornadoes,
+    Strewing yonder sea with wrecks,
+  Wasting towns, plantations, meadows,
+    Are the voice with which he speaks.
+  He, foreseeing what vexations
+    Afric's sons should undergo,
+  Fixed their tyrants' habitations
+    Where his whirlwinds answer--No.
+
+  By our blood in Afric wasted,
+    Ere our necks received the chain;
+  By the miseries, which we tasted
+    Crossing, in your barks, the main;
+  By our sufferings, since you brought us
+    To the man-degrading mart,
+  All-sustained by patience, taught us
+    Only by a broken heart:
+
+  Deem our nation brutes no longer,
+    Till some reason you shall find
+  Worthier of regard, and stronger,
+    Than the colour of our kind.
+  Slaves of gold! whose sordid dealings
+    Tarnish all, your boasted powers,
+  Prove that you have human feelings,
+    Ere you proudly question ours.
+
+
+This little piece Cowper presented in manuscript to some of his friends
+in London; and these, conceiving it to contain a powerful appeal in
+behalf of the injured Africans, joined in printing it. Having ordered it
+on the finest hot-pressed paper, and folded it up in a small and neat
+form, they gave it the printed title of _A Subject for Conversation at
+the Tea-table_. After this, they sent many thousand copies of it in
+franks into the country. From one it spread to another, till it
+travelled almost over the whole island. Falling at length into the hands
+of the musician, it was set to music; and it then found its way into the
+streets, both of the metropolis and of the country, where it was sung as
+a ballad; and where it gave a plain account of the subject, with an
+appropriate feeling, to those who heard it.
+
+Nor was the philanthropy of the late Mr. Wedgewood less instrumental in
+turning the popular feeling in our favour. He made his own manufactory
+contribute to this end. He took the seal of the committee, as exhibited
+in Chap. XX., for his model; and he produced a beautiful cameo, of a
+less size, of which the ground was a most delicate white, but the Negro,
+who was seen imploring compassion in the middle of it, was in his own
+native colour. Mr. Wedgewood made a liberal donation of these, when
+finished, among his friends. I received from him no less than five
+hundred of them myself. They, to whom they were sent, did not lay them
+up in their cabinets, but gave them away likewise. They were soon, like
+_The Negro's Complaint_, in different parts of the kingdom. Some had
+them inlaid in gold on the lid of their snuff-boxes. Of the ladies,
+several wore them in bracelets, and others had them fitted up in an
+ornamental manner as pins for their hair. At length the taste for
+wearing them became general; and thus fashion, which usually confines
+itself to worthless things, was seen for once in the honourable office
+of promoting the cause of justice, humanity, and freedom.
+
+I shall now only state that the committee took as members within its own
+body, in the period of time which is included in this chapter, the
+Reverend Mr. Ormerod, chaplain to the Bishop of London, and Captain
+James Bowen, of the royal navy; that they elected the Honourable
+Nathaniel Curzon (afterwards Lord Scarsdale), Dr. Frossard, of Lyons,
+and Benjamin Garlike, Esq., then secretary to the English embassy at the
+Hague, honorary and corresponding members; and that they concluded their
+annual labours with a suitable report, in which they noticed the
+extraordinary efforts of our opponents to injure our cause in the
+following manner:--"In the progress of this business, a powerful
+combination of interest has been excited against us. The African trader,
+the planter, and the West India merchant, have united their forces to
+defend the fortress, in which their supposed treasures lie. Vague
+calculations and false alarms have been thrown out to the public, in
+order to show that the constitution, and even the existence, of this
+free and opulent nation depend on its depriving the inhabitants of a
+foreign country of those rights and of that liberty which we ourselves
+so highly and so justly prize. Surely, in the nature of things, and in
+the order of Providence, it cannot be so. England existed as a great
+nation long before the African commerce was known amongst us, and it is
+not to acts of injustice and violence that she owes her present rank in
+the scale of nations."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+--Continuation from July, 1790, to July, 1791.--Author travels again
+throughout the kingdom; object of his journey.--Motion in the House of
+Commons to resume the hearing of evidence in favour of the abolition;
+list of all those examined on this side of the question; machinations
+of interested persons, and cruel circumstances of the times previously
+to the day of decision.--Motion at length made for stopping all
+further importation of Slaves from Africa; debates upon it; motion
+lost.--Resolutions of the committee for the Abolition of the Slave
+Trade.--Establishment of the Sierra Leone Company.
+
+
+It was a matter of deep affliction to us to think, that the crimes and
+sufferings inseparable from the Slave Trade were to be continued to
+another year. And yet it was our duty, in the present moment, to
+acquiesce in the postponement of the question. This postponement was not
+now for the purpose of delay, but of securing victory. The evidence, on
+the side of the abolition, was, at the end of the last session, but half
+finished. It was impossible, for the sake of Africa, that we could have
+then closed it. No other opportunity might offer in parliament for
+establishing an indelible record in her favour, if we were to neglect
+the present. It was our duty, therefore, even to wait to complete it,
+and to procure such a body of evidence, as should not only bear us out
+in the approaching contest, but such as, if we were to fail, would bear
+out our successors also. It was possible, indeed, if the inhabitants of
+our islands were to improve in civilization, that the poor slaves might
+experience gradually an improved treatment with it; and so far testimony
+now might not be testimony for ever; but it was utterly impossible,
+while the Slave Trade lasted, and the human passion continued to be the
+same, that there should be any change for the better in Africa; or that
+any modes, less barbarous, should come into use for procuring slaves.
+Evidence, therefore, if once collected on this subject, would be
+evidence for posterity. In the midst of these thoughts another journey
+occurred to me as necessary for this purpose; and I prayed, that I might
+have strength to perform it in the most effectual manner; and that I
+might be daily impressed, as I travelled along, with the stimulating
+thought, that the last hope for millions might possibly rest upon my own
+endeavours.
+
+The committee highly approved of this journey; Mr. Wilberforce saw the
+absolute necessity of it also, and had prepared a number of questions,
+with great ingenuity, to be put to such persons as might have
+information to communicate. These I added to those in the tables, which
+have been already mentioned, and they made together a valuable
+collection on the subject.
+
+This tour was the most vexatious of any I had yet undertaken; many still
+refused to come forward to be examined, and some on the most frivolous
+pretences, so that I was disgusted, as I journeyed on, to find how
+little men were disposed to make sacrifices for so great a cause. In one
+part of it I went over nearly two thousand miles, receiving repeated
+refusals; I had not secured one witness within this distance; this was
+truly disheartening. I was subject to the whims and caprice of those
+whom I solicited on these occasions[A]; to these I was obliged to
+accommodate myself. When at Edinburgh, a person who could have given me
+material information declined seeing me, though he really wished well to
+the cause; when I had returned southward as far as York, he changed his
+mind, and he would then see me; I went back that I might not lose him.
+When I arrived, he would give me only private information. Thus I
+travelled, backwards and forwards, four hundred miles to no purpose. At
+another place a circumstance almost similar happened, though with a
+different issue. I had been for two years writing about a person, whose
+testimony was important. I had passed once through the town in which he
+lived, but he would not then see me; I passed through it now, but no
+entreaties of his friends could make him alter his resolution. He was a
+man highly respectable as to situation in life, but of considerable
+vanity. I said therefore to my friend, on leaving the town, You may tell
+him that I expect to be at Nottingham in a few days, and though it be a
+hundred and fifty miles distant, I will even come back to see him if he
+will dine with me on my return. A letter from my friend announced to me,
+when at Nottingham, that his vanity had been so gratified by the thought
+of a person coming expressly to visit him from such a distance, that he
+would meet me according to my appointment; I went back; we dined
+together; he yielded to my request; I was now repaid, and I returned
+towards Nottingham in the night. These circumstances I mention, and I
+feel it right to mention them, that the reader may be properly impressed
+with the great difficulties we found in collecting a body of evidence in
+comparison with our opponents. They ought never to be forgotten; for if
+with the testimony, picked up as it were under all these disadvantages,
+we carried our object against those who had almost numberless witnesses
+to command, what must have been the merits of our cause! No person can
+indeed judge of the severe labour and trials in these journeys. In the
+present, I was out four months; I was almost over the whole island; I
+intersected it backwards and forwards both in the night and in the day;
+I travelled nearly seven thousand miles in this time, and I was able to
+count upon twenty new and willing evidences.
+
+Having now accomplished my object, Mr. Wilberforce moved on the 4th of
+February in the House of Commons, that a committee be appointed to
+examine further witnesses in behalf of the abolition of the Slave Trade,
+This motion was no sooner made, than Mr. Cawthorne rose, to our great
+surprise, to oppose it. He took upon himself to decide that the House
+had heard evidence enough. This indecent motion was not without its
+advocates. Mr. Wilberforce set forth the injustice of this attempt, and
+proved, that out of eighty-one days which had been given up to the
+hearing of evidence, the witnesses against the abolition had occupied no
+less than fifty-seven. He was strenuously supported by Mr. Burke, Mr.
+Martin, and other respectable members. At length the debate ended in
+favour of the original motion, and a committee was appointed
+accordingly.
+
+The examinations began again on February 7th, and continued till April
+5th, when they were finally closed. In this, as in the former session,
+Mr. Wilberforce and Mr. William Smith principally conducted them; and
+indeed it was necessary that they should have been present at these
+times; for it is perhaps difficult to conceive the illiberal manner in
+which our witnesses were treated by those on the other side of the
+question. Men who had left the trade upon principle, and who had come
+forward, against their apparent interest, to serve the cause of humanity
+and justice, were looked upon as mercenaries and culprits, or as men of
+doubtful and suspicious character; they were brow-beaten; unhandsome
+questions were put to them; some were kept for four days under
+examination. It was however highly to their honour that they were found
+in no one instance to prevaricate, nor to waver as to the certainty of
+their facts.
+
+But this treatment, hard as it was for them to bear, was indeed good for
+the cause; for, coming thus pure out of the fire, they occasioned their
+own testimony, when read, to bear stronger marks of truth than that of
+the generality of our opponents; nor was it less superior when weighed
+by other considerations. For the witnesses, against the abolition were
+principally interested; they, who were not, had been hospitably received
+at the planters' tables. The evidence, too, which they delivered, was
+almost wholly negative. They had not seen such and such evils; but this
+was no proof that the evils did not exist. The witnesses, on the other
+hand, who came up in favour of the abolition, had no advantage in making
+their several assertions. In some instances they came up against their
+apparent interest, and, to my knowledge, suffered persecution for so
+doing. The evidence also which they delivered was of a positive nature.
+They gave an account of specific evils, which had come under their own
+eyes; these evils were never disproved; they stood therefore on a firm
+basis, as on a tablet of brass. Engraved there in affirmative
+characters, a few of them were of more value than all the negative and
+airy testimony which had been advanced on the other side of the
+question.
+
+That the public may judge, in some measure, of the respectability of the
+witnesses in favour of the abolition, and that they may know also to
+whom Africa is so much indebted for her deliverance, I shall subjoin
+their names in the three following lists. The first will contain those
+who were examined by the privy council only; the second those who were
+examined by the privy council and the House of Commons also; and the
+third those who were examined-by the House of Commons only.
+
+LIST I.
+
+LIST II.
+
+LIST III.
+
+The evidence having been delivered on both sides, and then printed, it
+was judged expedient by Mr. Wilberforce, seeing that it filled three
+folio volumes, to abridge it. This abridgement was made by the different
+friends of the cause. William Burgh, Esq., of York; Thomas Babington,
+Esq., of Rothley Temple; the Rev. Thomas Gisborne, of Yoxall Lodge; Mr.
+Campbell Haliburton, of Edinburgh; George Harrison, with one or two
+others of the committee, and myself, were employed upon it. The greater
+share, however, of the labour, fell upon Dr. Dickson. That no
+misrepresentation of any person's testimony might be made, Matthew
+Montagu, Esq., and the Honourable E.J. Elliott, members of Parliament,
+undertook to compare the abridged manuscripts with the original text,
+and to strike out or correct whatever they thought to be erroneous, and
+to insert whatever they thought to have been omitted. The committee for
+the abolition, when the work was finished, printed it at their own
+expense, Mr. Wilberforce then presented it to the House of Commons, as a
+faithful abridgement of the whole evidence. Having been received as
+such, under the guarantee of Mr. Montague and Mr. Elliott, the committee
+sent it to every individual member of that House.
+
+The book having been thus presented, and a day fixed for the final
+determination of the question, our feelings became almost insupportable;
+for we had the mortification to find, that our cause was going down in
+estimation, where it was then most important that it should have
+increased in favour. Our opponents had taken advantage of the long delay
+which the examination of evidence had occasioned, to prejudice the minds
+of many of the members of the House of Commons against us. The old
+arguments of emancipation, massacre, ruin, and indemnification, had been
+kept up; but, as the day of final decision approached, they had been
+increased. Such was our situation at this moment, when the current was
+turned still more powerfully against us by the peculiar circumstances of
+the times. It was, indeed, the misfortune of this great cause to be
+assailed by every weapon which could be turned against it. At this time,
+Thomas Paine had published his _Rights of Man_. This had been widely
+circulated. At this time, also, the French revolution had existed nearly
+two years. The people of England had seen, during this interval, a
+government as it were dissected. They had seen an old constitution taken
+down, and a new one put up, piece by piece, in its stead. The
+revolution, therefore, in conjunction with the book in question, had had
+the effect of producing dissatisfaction among thousands; and this
+dissatisfaction was growing, so as to alarm a great number of persons of
+property in the kingdom, as well as the government itself. Now will it
+be believed that our opponents had the injustice to lay hold of these
+circumstances, at this critical moment, to give a death-blow to the
+cause of the abolition? They represented the committee, though it had
+existed before the French revolution, or the _Rights of Man_ were heard
+of, as a nest of Jacobins; and they held up the cause, sacred as it was,
+and though it had the support of the minister, as affording an
+opportunity of meeting for the purpose of overthrowing the state. Their
+cry succeeded. The very book of the abridgment of the evidence was
+considered by many members as poisonous as that of the _Rights of Man_.
+It was too profane for many of them to touch; and they who discarded it,
+discarded the cause also.
+
+But these were not the only circumstances which were used as means, at
+this critical moment, to defeat us. News of the revolution, which had
+commenced in St. Domingo, in consequence of the disputes between the
+whites and the people of colour, had, long before this, arrived in
+England. The horrible scenes which accompanied it, had been frequently
+published as so many arguments against our cause. In January, new
+insurrections were announced as having happened in Martinique. The
+negroes there were described as armed, and the planters as having
+abandoned their estates for fear of massacre. Early in the month of
+March, insurrections in the smaller French islands were reported. Every
+effort was then made to represent these as the effects of the new
+principles of liberty, and of the cry for abolition. But what should
+happen, just at this moment, to increase the clamour against us? Nothing
+less than an insurrection in Dominica.--Yes!--An insurrection in a
+British island. This was the very event for our opponents. "All the
+predictions of the planters had now become verified. The horrible
+massacres were now realizing at home." To give this news still greater
+effect, a meeting of our opponents was held at the London Tavern. By a
+letter read there, it appeared that "the ruin of Dominica was now at
+hand." Resolutions were voted, and a memorial presented to government,
+"immediately to despatch such a military force to the different islands,
+as might preserve the whites from destruction, and keep the negroes in
+subjection during the present critical state of the slave bill." This
+alarm was kept up till the 7th of April, when another meeting took
+place, to receive the answer of government to the memorial. It was there
+resolved that, "as it was too late to send troops to the islands, the
+best way of preserving them would be to bring the question of the Slave
+Trade to an immediate issue; and that it was the duty of the government,
+if they regarded the safety of the islands, to oppose the abolition of
+it."  Accounts of all these proceedings were inserted in the public
+papers. It is needless to say that they were injurious to our cause.
+Many looked upon the abolitionists as monsters. They became also
+terrified themselves. The idea with these was, that unless the
+discussion on this subject was terminated, all would be lost. Thus,
+under a combination of effects, arising from the publication of the
+_Rights of Man_, the rise and progress of the French revolution, and the
+insurrections of the negroes in the different islands, no one of which
+events had anything to do with the abolition of the Slave Trade, the
+current was turned against us; and in this unfavourable frame of mind
+many members of parliament went into the House, on the day fixed for the
+discussion, to discharge their duty with respect to this great question.
+
+On the 18th of April, Mr. Wilberforce made his motion. He began by
+expressing a hope, that the present debate, instead of exciting asperity
+and confirming prejudice, would tend to produce a general conviction of
+the truth of what in fact was incontrovertible; that the abolition of
+the Slave Trade was indispensably required of them, not only by morality
+and religion, but by sound policy. He stated that he should argue the
+matter from evidence. He adverted to the character, situation, and means
+of information of his own witnesses; and having divided his subject into
+parts, the first of which related to the manner of reducing the natives
+of Africa to a state of slavery, he handled it in the following
+manner:--
+
+He would begin, he said, with the first boundary of the trade. Captain
+Wilson and Captain Hills, of His Majesty's navy, and Mr. Dalrymple, of
+the land service, had concurred in stating, that in the country
+contiguous to the river Senegal, when slave-ships arrived there, armed
+parties were regularly sent out in the evening, who scoured the country,
+and brought in their prey. The wretched victims were to be seen in the
+morning bound back to back in the huts on shore, whence they were
+conveyed, tied hand and foot, to the slave-ships. The design of these
+ravages was obvious, because, when the Slave Trade was stopped, they
+ceased. Mr. Kiernan spoke of the constant depredations by the Moors to
+procure slaves. Mr. Wadstrom confirmed them. The latter gentleman showed
+also that they were excited by presents of brandy, gunpowder, and such
+other incentives; and that they were not only carried on by one
+community against another, but that the kings were stimulated to
+practise them in their territories, and on their own subjects: and in
+one instance a chieftain, who, when intoxicated, could not resist the
+demands of the slave merchants, had expressed, in a moment of reason, a
+due sense of his own crime, and had reproached his Christian seducers.
+Abundant also were the instances of private rapine. Individuals were
+kidnapped, whilst in their fields and gardens. There was an universal
+feeling of distrust and apprehension there. The natives never went any
+distance from home without arms; and when Captain Wilson asked them the
+reason of it, they pointed to a slave-ship then lying within sight.
+
+On the windward coast, it appeared from Lieutenant Story and Mr. Bowman,
+that the evils just mentioned existed, if possible, in a still higher
+degree. They had seen the remains of villages, which had been burnt,
+whilst the fields of corn were still standing beside them, and every
+other trace of recent desolation. Here an agent was sent to establish a
+settlement in the country, and to send to the ships such slaves as he
+might obtain. The orders he received from his captain were, that "he was
+to encourage the chieftains by brandy and gunpowder to go to war, to
+make slaves." This he did. The chieftains performed their part in
+return. The neighbouring villages were surrounded and set on fire in the
+night. The inhabitants were seized when making their escape; and, being
+brought to the agent, were by him forwarded to his principal on the
+coast. Mr. How, a botanist in the service of Government, stated, that on
+the arrival of an order for slaves from Cape Coast Castle, while he was
+there, a native chief immediately sent forth armed parties, who brought
+in a supply of all descriptions in the night.
+
+But he would now mention one or two instances of another sort, and these
+merely on account of the conclusion, which was to be drawn from them.
+When Captain Hills was in the river Gambia, he mentioned accidentally to
+a Black pilot, who was in the boat with him, that he wanted a cabin-boy.
+It so happened that some youths were then on the shore with vegetables
+to sell. The pilot beckoned to them to come on board; at the same time
+giving Captain Hills to understand, that he might take his choice of
+them; and when Captain Hills rejected the proposal with indignation, the
+pilot seemed perfectly at a loss to account for his warmth; and drily
+observed, that the slave-captains would not have been so scrupulous.
+Again, when General Rooke commanded at Goree, a number of the natives,
+men, women, and children, came to pay him a friendly visit. All was
+gaiety and merriment. It was a scene to gladden the saddest, and to
+soften the hardest, heart. But a slave-captain was not so soon thrown
+off his guard. Three English barbarians of this description had the
+audacity jointly to request the general, to seize the whole unsuspicious
+multitude and sell them. For this they alleged the precedent of a former
+governor. Was not this request a proof of the frequency of such acts of
+rapine? for how familiar must such have been to slave-captains, when
+three of them dared to carry a British officer of rank such a flagitious
+proposal! This would stand in the place of a thousand instances. It
+would give credibility to every other act of violence stated in the
+evidence, however enormous it might appear.
+
+But he would now have recourse for a moment to circumstantial evidence.
+An adverse witness, who had lived on the Gold Coast, had said that the
+only way in which children could he enslaved, was by whole families
+being sold when the principals had been condemned for witchcraft. But he
+said at the same time, that few were convicted of this crime, and that
+the younger part of a family in these cases was sometimes spared. But if
+this account were true, it would follow that the children in the
+slave-vessels would be few indeed. But it had been proved, that the
+usual proportion of these was never less than a fourth of the whole
+cargo on the coast, and also, that the kidnapping of children was very
+prevalent there.
+
+All these atrocities, he said, were fully substantiated by the evidence;
+and here he should do injustice to his cause, if he were not to make a
+quotation from the speech of Mr. B. Edwards in the Assembly of Jamaica,
+who, though he was hostile to his propositions, had yet the candour to
+deliver himself in the following manner there. "I am persuaded," says
+he, "that Mr. Wilberforce has been rightly informed as to the manner in
+which slaves are generally procured. The intelligence I have collected
+from my own negroes abundantly confirms his account; and I have not the
+smallest doubt, that in Africa the effects of this trade are precisely
+such as he has represented them. The whole, or the greatest part, of
+that immense continent is a field of warfare and desolation; a
+wilderness, in which the inhabitants are wolves towards each other. That
+this scene of oppression, fraud, treachery, and bloodshed, if not
+originally occasioned, is in part (I will not say wholly) upheld by the
+Slave Trade, I dare not dispute. Every man in the Sugar Islands may be
+convinced that it is so, who will enquire of any African negroes, on
+their first arrival, concerning the circumstances of their captivity.
+The assertion that it is otherwise, is mockery and insult."
+
+But it was not only by acts of outrage that the Africans were brought
+into bondage. The very administration of justice was turned into an
+engine for that end. The smallest offence was punished by a fine equal
+to the value of a slave. Crimes were also fabricated; false accusations
+were resorted to; and persons were sometimes employed to seduce the
+unwary into practices with a view to the conviction and the sale of
+them.
+
+It was another effect of this trade, that it corrupted the morals of
+those who carried it on. Every fraud was used to deceive the ignorance
+of the natives by false weights and measures, adulterated commodities,
+and other impositions of a like sort. These frauds were even
+acknowledged by many who had themselves practised them, in obedience to
+the orders of their superiors. For the honour of the mercantile
+character of the country, such a traffic ought immediately to be
+suppressed.
+
+Yet these things, however clearly proved by positive testimony, by the
+concession of opponents, by particular inference, by general reasoning,
+by the most authentic histories of Africa, by the experience of all
+countries and of all ages,--these things, and (what was still more
+extraordinary) even the possibility of them, were denied by those who
+had been brought forward on the other side of the question. These,
+however, were chiefly persons who had been trading-governors of forts in
+Africa, or who had long commanded ships in the Slave Trade. As soon as
+he knew the sort of witnesses which was to be called against him, he had
+been prepared to expect much prejudice. But his expectations had been
+greatly surpassed by the testimony they had given. He did not mean to
+impeach their private characters, but they certainly showed themselves
+under the influence of such gross prejudices, as to render them
+incompetent judges of the subject they came to elucidate. They seemed
+(if he might so say) to be enveloped by a certain atmosphere of their
+own; and to see, as it were, through a kind of African medium. Every
+object which met their eyes came distorted and turned from its true
+direction. Even the declarations, which they made on other occasions,
+seemed wholly strange to them. They sometimes not only forgot what they
+had seen, but what they had said; and when to one of them his own
+testimony to the privy council was read, he mistook it for that of
+another, whose evidence he declared to be "the merest burlesque in the
+world."
+
+But the House must be aware that there was not only an African medium,
+but an African logic. It seemed to be an acknowledged axiom in this,
+that every person who offered a slave for sale had a right to sell him,
+however fraudulently he might have obtained him. This had been proved by
+the witnesses who opposed him. "It would have stopped my trade," said
+one of them, "to have asked the broker how he came by the person he was
+offering me for sale."--"We always suppose," said another, "the broker
+has a right to sell the person he offers us."--"I never heard of such a
+question being asked," said a third; "a man would be thought a fool who
+should put such a question."--He hoped the House would see the practical
+utility of this logic. It was the key-stone which held the building
+together. By means of it, slave-captains might traverse the whole coast
+of Africa, and see nothing but equitable practices. They could not,
+however, be wholly absolved, even if they availed themselves of this
+principle to its fullest extent; for they had often committed
+depredations themselves; especially when they were passing by any part
+of the coast, where they did not mean to continue or to go again. Hence
+it was (as several captains of the navy and others had declared on their
+examination), that the natives, when at sea in their canoes, would never
+come near the men-of-war, till they knew them to be such. But finding
+this, and that they were not slave-vessels, they laid aside their fears,
+and came and continued on board with unsuspecting cheerfulness. With
+respect to the miseries of the Middle Passage, he had said so much on a
+former occasion, that he would spare the feelings of the committee as
+much as he could. He would therefore simply state that the evidence,
+which was before them, confirmed all those scenes of wretchedness which
+he had then described: the same suffering from a state of suffocation,
+by being crowded together; the same dancing in fetters; the same
+melancholy singing; the same eating by compulsion; the same despair; the
+same insanity; and all the other abominations which characterized the
+trade. New instances however had occurred, where these wretched men had
+resolved on death to terminate their woes. Some had destroyed themselves
+by refusing sustenance, in spite of threats and punishments. Others had
+thrown themselves into the sea; and more than one, when in the act of
+drowning, were seen to wave their hands in triumph, "exulting" (to use
+the words of an eye-witness) "that they had escaped." Yet these and
+similar things, when viewed through the African medium he had mentioned,
+took a different shape and colour. Captain Knox, an adverse witness, had
+maintained, that slaves lay during the night in tolerable comfort. And
+yet he confessed, that in a vessel of one hundred and twenty tons, in
+which he had carried two hundred and ninety slaves, the latter had not
+all of them room to lie on their backs. How comfortably, then, must they
+have lain in his subsequent voyages! for he carried afterwards, in a
+vessel of a hundred and eight tons, four hundred and fifty; and in a
+vessel of one hundred and fifty tons, no less than six hundred slaves.
+Another instance of African deception was to be found in the testimony
+of Captain Frazer, one of the most humane captains in the trade. It had
+been said of him, that he had held hot coals to the mouth of a slave, to
+compel him to eat. He was questioned on this point; but not admitting,
+in the true spirit of African logic, that he who makes another commit a
+crime is guilty of it himself, he denied the charge indignantly, and
+defied a proof. But it was said to him, "Did you never order such a
+thing to be done?" His reply was, "Being sick in my cabin, I was
+informed that a man-slave would neither eat, drink, nor speak. I desired
+the mate and surgeon to try to persuade him to speak. I desired that the
+slaves might try also. When I found he was still obstinate, not knowing
+whether it was from sulkiness or insanity, I ordered a person to present
+him with a piece of fire in one hand, and a piece of yam in the other,
+and to tell me what effect this had upon him. I learnt that he took the
+yam and began to eat it, but he threw the fire overboard." Such was his
+own account of the matter. This was eating by duresse, if anything could
+be called so. The captain, however, triumphed in his expedient; and
+concluded by telling the committee, that he sold this very slave at
+Grenada for forty pounds. Mark here the moral of the tale, and learn the
+nature and the cure of sulkiness.
+
+But upon whom did the cruelties, thus arising out of the prosecution of
+this barbarous traffic, fall? Upon a people with feeling and intellect
+like ourselves. One witness had spoken of the acuteness of their
+understandings; another, of the extent of their memories; a third, of
+their genius for commerce: a fourth, of their proficiency in
+manufactures at home. Many had admired their gentle and peaceable
+disposition, their cheerfulness, and their hospitality. Even they who
+were nominally slaves, in Africa lived a happy life. A witness against
+the abolition had described them as sitting and eating with their
+masters in the true style of patriarchal simplicity and comfort. Were
+these, then, a people incapable of civilization? The argument that they
+were an inferior species had been proved to be false.
+
+He would now go to a new part of the subject. An opinion had gone forth
+that the abolition of the trade would be the ruin of the West India
+Islands. He trusted he should prove that the direct contrary was the
+truth; though, had he been unable to do this, it would have made no
+difference as to his own vote. In examining, however, this opinion; he
+should exclude the subject of the cultivation of new lands by fresh
+importations of slaves. The impolicy of this measure, apart from its
+inhumanity, was indisputably clear. Let the committee consider the
+dreadful mortality which attended it. Let them look to the evidence of
+Mr. Woolrich, and there see a contrast drawn between the slow, but sure,
+progress of cultivation carried on in the natural way, and the attempt
+to force improvements, which, however flattering the prospect at first,
+soon produced a load of debt, and inextricable embarrassments. He might
+even appeal to the statements of the West Indians themselves, who
+allowed that more than twenty millions were owing to the people of this
+country, to show that no system could involve them so deeply as that on
+which they had hitherto gone. But he would refer them to the accounts of
+Mr. Irving, as contained in the evidence. Waving, then, the
+consideration of this part of the subject, the opinion in question must
+have arisen from a notion, that the stock of slaves, now in the islands,
+could not be kept up by propagation; but that it was necessary, from
+time to time, to recruit them with imported Africans. In direct
+refutation of this position he should prove: First, that, in the
+condition and treatment of the Negroes, there were causes sufficient to
+afford us reason to expect a considerable decrease, but particularly
+that their increase had not been a serious object of attention:
+Secondly, that this decrease was in fact, notwithstanding, very
+trifling; or rather, he believed, he might declare it had now actually
+ceased: and, Thirdly, he should urge many direct and collateral facts
+and arguments, constituting on the whole an irresistible proof, that
+even a rapid increase might henceforth be expected.
+
+He wished to treat the West Indians with all possible candour: but he
+was obliged to confess, in arguing upon these points, that whatever
+splendid instances there might be of kindness towards their slaves,
+there were some evils of almost universal operation, which were
+necessarily connected with the system of slavery. Above all, the state
+of degradation to which they were reduced, deserved to be noticed, as it
+produced an utter inattention to them as moral agents; they were kept at
+work under the whip like cattle; they were left totally ignorant of
+morality and religion; there was no regular marriage among them; hence
+promiscuous intercourse, early prostitution, and excessive drinking,
+were material causes of their decrease. With respect to the instruction
+of the slaves in the principles of religion, the happiest effects had
+resulted, particularly in Antigua, where, under the Moravians and
+Methodists, they had so far profited, that the planters themselves
+confessed their value as property had been raised one-third by their
+increased habits of regularity and industry.
+
+Whatever might have been said to the contrary, it was plainly to be
+inferred from the evidence that the slaves were not protected by law.
+Colonial statutes had indeed been passed, but they were a dead letter;
+since, however ill they were treated, they were not considered as having
+a right to redress. An instance of astonishing cruelty by a Jew had been
+mentioned by Mr. Ross; it was but justice to say, that the man was held
+in detestation for it, but yet no one had ever thought of calling him to
+a legal account. Mr. Ross conceived a master had a right to punish his
+slave in whatever manner he might think proper; the same was declared by
+numberless other witnesses. Some instances indeed had lately occurred of
+convictions. A master had wantonly cut the mouth of a child, of six
+months old, almost from ear to ear. But did not the verdict of the jury
+show, that the doctrine of calling masters to an account was entirely
+novel, as it only pronounced him "Guilty, subject to the opinion of the
+court, if immoderate correction of a slave by his master be a crime
+indictable!" The court determined in the affirmative; and what was the
+punishment of this barbarous act?--A fine of forty shillings currency,
+equivalent to about twenty-five shillings sterling.
+
+The slaves were but ill off in point of medical care. Sometimes four or
+five, and even eight or nine thousand of them, were under the care of
+one medical man; which, dispersed on different and distant estates, was
+a greater number than he could possibly attend to.
+
+It was also in evidence that they were in general under-fed; they were
+supported partly by the produce of their own provision-ground, and
+partly by an allowance of flour and grain from their masters. In one of
+the islands, where provision-ground did not answer one year in three,
+the allowance to a working Negro was but from five to nine pints of
+grain per week: in Dominica, where it never failed, from six to seven
+quarts: in Nevis and St. Christopher's, where there was no
+provision-ground, it was but eleven pints. Add to this, that it might be
+still less, as the circumstances of their masters might become
+embarrassed, and in this case both an abridgment of their food and an
+increase of their labour would follow.
+
+But the great cause of the decrease of the slaves was in the
+non-residence of the planters. Sir George Yonge, and many others, had
+said, they had seen the slaves treated in a manner which their owners
+would have resented if they had known it. Mr. Orde spoke in the
+strongest terms of the misconduct of managers. The fact was, that these
+in general sought to establish their characters by producing large crops
+at a small immediate expense; too little considering how far the slaves
+might suffer from ill-treatment and excessive labour. The pursuit of
+such a system was a criterion for judging of their characters, as both
+Mr. Long and Mr. Ottley had confessed.
+
+But he must contend, in addition to this, that the object of keeping up
+the stock of slaves by breeding had never been seriously attended to.
+For this he might appeal both to his own witnesses and to those of his
+opponents, but he would only notice one fact. It was remarkable that,
+when owners and managers were asked about the produce of their estates,
+they were quite at home as to the answer; but when they were asked about
+the proportion of their male and female slaves, and their infants, they
+knew little about the matter. Even medical men were adepts in the art of
+planting, but when they were asked the latter questions, as connected
+with breeding and rearing, they seemed quite amazed, and could give no
+information upon the subject of them.
+
+Persons, however, of great respectability had been called as witnesses
+who had not seen the treatment of the Negroes as he had now described
+it. He knew what was due to their characters, but yet he must enter a
+general protest against their testimony. "I have often," says Mr. Ross,
+"attended both governors and admirals upon tours in the island of
+Jamaica, but it was not likely that these should see much distress upon
+these occasions. The white people and drivers would take care not to
+harrow up the feelings of strangers of distinction by the exercise of
+the whip, or the infliction of punishments, at that particular time;
+and, even if there were any disgusting objects, it was natural to
+suppose that they would then remove them." But in truth these gentlemen
+had given proofs that they were under the influence of prejudice. Some
+of them had declared the abolition would ruin the West Indies; but this,
+it was obvious, must depend upon the practicability of keeping up the
+stock without African supplies; and yet, when they were questioned upon
+this point, they knew nothing about it; hence they had formed a
+conclusion without premises. Their evidence, too, extended through a
+long series of years; they had never seen one instance of ill-treatment
+in the time, and yet, in the same breath, they talked of the amended
+situation of the slaves, and that they were now far better off than
+formerly. One of them, to whom his country owed much, stated that a
+master had been sentenced to death for the murder of his own slave; but
+his recollection must have failed him, for the murder of a slave was not
+then a capital crime. A respectable governor also had delivered an
+opinion to the same effect; but, had he looked into the statute-book of
+the island, he would have found his error.
+
+It had been said that the slaves were in a better state than the
+peasantry of this country; but when the question was put to Mr. Ross,
+did he not answer, "that he would not insult the latter by a
+comparison!"
+
+It had been said again, that the Negroes were happier as slaves than
+they would be if they were to be made free. But how was this
+reconcilable with facts? If a Negro under extraordinary circumstances
+had saved money enough, did he not always purchase his release from this
+situation of superior happiness by the sacrifice of his last shilling?
+Was it not also notorious, that the greatest reward which a master
+thought he could bestow upon his slave for long and faithful services
+was his freedom.
+
+It had been said again, that Negroes, when made free, never returned to
+their own country. But was not the reason obvious? If they could even
+reach their own homes in safety, their kindred and connexions might be
+dead. But would they subject themselves to be kidnapped again; to be
+hurried once more on board a slave-ship, and again to endure and survive
+the horrors of the passage? Yet the love of their native country had
+been proved beyond a doubt; many of the witnesses had heard them talk of
+it in terms of the strongest affection. Acts of suicide, too, were
+frequent in the islands, under the notion that these afforded them the
+readiest means of getting home. Conformably with this, Captain Wilson
+had maintained that the funerals, which in Africa were accompanied with
+lamentations and cries of sorrow, were attended, in the West Indies with
+every mark of joy.
+
+He had now, he said, made good his first proposition--that in the
+condition of the slaves there were causes, which should lead us to
+expect, that there would be a considerable decrease among them. This
+decrease in the island of Jamaica was but trifling, or, rather, it had
+ceased some years ago; and if there was a decrease, it was only on the
+imported slaves. It appeared from the privy council report, that from
+1698 to 1730 the decrease was three and a-half per cent.; from 1730 to
+1755 it was two and a-half per cent.; from 1755 to 1768 it was lessened
+to one and three-quarters; and from 1768 to 1788 it was not more than
+one per cent. This last decrease was not greater than could be accounted
+for from hurricanes and consequent famines, and from the number of
+imported Africans who perished in the seasoning. The latter was a cause
+of mortality, which, it was evident, would cease with the importations.
+This conclusion was confirmed in part by Dr. Anderson, who, in his
+testimony to the Assembly of Jamaica, affirmed that there was a
+considerable increase on the properties of the island, and particularly
+in the parish in which he resided.
+
+He would now proceed to establish his second proposition, that from
+henceforth a very considerable increase might be expected. This he might
+support by a close reasoning upon the preceding facts; but the testimony
+of his opponents furnished him with sufficient evidence. He could show,
+that wherever the slaves were treated better than ordinary, there was
+uniformly an increase in their number. Look at the estates of Mr.
+Willock, Mr. Ottley, Sir Ralph Payne, and others. In short, he should
+weary the committee, if he were to enumerate the instances of
+plantations, which were stated in the evidence to have kept up their
+numbers only from a little variation in their treatment. A remedy also
+had been lately found for a disorder, by which vast numbers of infants
+had been formerly swept away. Mr. Long, also, had laid it down, that
+whenever the slaves should bear a certain proportion to the produce,
+they might be expected to keep up their numbers; but this proportion
+they now exceeded. The Assembly of Jamaica had given it also as their
+opinion, "that when once the sexes should become nearly equal in point
+of number, there was no reason to suppose, that the increase of the
+Negroes by generation would fall short of the natural increase of the
+labouring poor in Great Britain." But the inequality, here spoken of,
+could only exist in the case of the African Negroes, of whom more males
+were imported than females; and this inequality would be done away soon
+after the trade should cease.
+
+But the increase of the Negroes, where their treatment was better than
+ordinary, was confirmed in the evidence by instances in various parts of
+the world. From one end of the continent of America to the other, their
+increase had been undeniably established; and this to a prodigious
+extent, though they had to contend with the severe cold of the winter,
+and in some parts with noxious exhalations in the summer. This was the
+case, also, in the settlement of Bencoolen in the East Indies. It
+appeared from the evidence of Mr. Botham, that a number of Negroes, who
+had been imported there in the same disproportion of the sexes as in
+West Indian cargoes, and who lived under the same disadvantages, as in
+the islands, of promiscuous intercourse and general prostitution, began,
+after they had been settled a short time, annually to increase.
+
+But to return to the West Indies.--A slave-ship had been, many years
+ago, wrecked near St. Vincent's. The slaves on board, who escaped to the
+island, were without necessaries; and, besides, were obliged to maintain
+a war with the native Caribbs: yet they soon multiplied to an
+astonishing number; and, according to Mr. Ottley, they were now on the
+increase. From Sir John Dalrymple's evidence it appeared that the
+domestic slaves in Jamaica, who were less worked than those in the
+field, increased; and from Mr. Long, that the free Blacks and Mulattoes
+there increased also.
+
+But there was an instance which militated against these facts (and the
+only one in the evidence), which he would now examine. Sir Archibald
+Campbell had heard that the Maroons in Jamaica, in the year 1739,
+amounted to three thousand men fit to carry arms. This supposed their
+whole number to have been about twelve thousand; but in the year 1782,
+after a real muster by himself, he found, to his great astonishment,
+that the fighting men did not then amount to three hundred. Now the fact
+was, that Sir Archibald Campbell's first position was founded upon
+rumour only, and was not true; for, according to Mr. Long, the Maroons
+were actually numbered in 1749, when they amounted to about six hundred
+and sixty in all, having only a hundred and fifty men fit to carry arms.
+Hence, if when mustered by Sir Archibald Campbell he found three hundred
+fighting men, they must from 1749 to 1782 have actually doubled their
+population.
+
+Was it possible, after these instances, to suppose that the Negroes
+could not keep up their numbers, if their natural increase were made a
+subject of attention? The reverse was proved by sound reasoning. It had
+been confirmed by unquestionable facts. It had been shown, that they had
+increased in every situation, where there was the slightest circumstance
+in their favour. Where there had been any decrease, it was stated to be
+trifling; though no attention appeared to have been paid to the subject.
+This decrease had been gradually lessening; and, whenever a single cause
+of it had been removed (many still remaining), it had altogether ceased.
+Surely these circumstances formed a body of proof which was
+irresistible.
+
+He would now speak of the consequences of the abolition of the Slave
+Trade in other points of view; and first, as to its effects upon our
+marine. An abstract of the Bristol and Liverpool muster-rolls had been
+just laid before the House. It appeared from this, that in three hundred
+and fifty slave-vessels, having on board twelve thousand two hundred and
+sixty-three persons, two thousand six hundred and forty-three were lost
+in twelve months; whereas in four hundred and sixty-two West Indiamen,
+having on board seven thousand six hundred and forty persons, one
+hundred and eighteen only were lost in seven months. This rather
+exceeded the losses stated by Mr. Clarkson. For their barbarous usage on
+board these ships, and for their sickly and abject state in the West
+Indies, he would appeal to Governor Parry's letter; to the evidence of
+Mr. Ross; to the assertion of Mr. B. Edwards, an opponent; and to the
+testimony of Captains Sir George Yonge and Thompson, of the Royal Navy.
+He would appeal, also, to what Captain Hall, of the Navy, had given in
+evidence. This gentleman, after the action of the 12th of April,
+impressed thirty hands from a slave-vessel, whom he selected with the
+utmost care from a crew of seventy; and he was reprimanded by his
+admiral, though they could scarcely get men to bring home the prizes,
+for introducing such wretches to communicate disorders to the fleet.
+Captain Smith of the Navy had also declared, that when employed to board
+Guineamen to impress sailors, although he had examined near twenty
+vessels, he never was able to get more than two men, who were fit for
+service; and these turned out such inhuman fellows, although good
+seamen, that he was obliged to dismiss them from the ship.
+
+But he hoped the committee would attend to the latter part of the
+assertion of Captain Smith. Yes: this trade, while it injured the
+constitutions of our sailors, debased their morals. Of this, indeed,
+there was a barbarous illustration in the evidence. A slave-ship had
+struck on some shoals, called the Morant Keys, a few leagues from the
+east end of Jamaica. The crew landed in their boats, with arms and
+provisions, leaving the slaves on board in their irons. This happened in
+the night. When morning came, it was discovered that the Negroes had
+broken their shackles, and were busy in making rafts; upon which
+afterwards they placed the women and children. The men attended upon the
+latter, swimming by their side, whilst they drifted to the island where
+the crew were. But what was the sequel? From an apprehension that the
+Negroes would consume the water and provisions, which had been landed,
+the crew resolved to destroy them as they approached the shore. They
+killed between three and four hundred. Out of the whole cargo only
+thirty-three were saved, who, on being brought to Kingston, were sold.
+It would, however, be to no purpose, he said, to relieve the Slave Trade
+from this act of barbarity. The story of the Morant Keys was paralleled
+by that of Captain Collingwood; and were you to get rid of these,
+another, and another, would still present itself, to prove the barbarous
+effects of this trade on the moral character.
+
+But of the miseries of the trade there was no end. Whilst he had been
+reading out of the evidence the story of the Morant Keys, his eye had
+but glanced on the opposite page, and it met another circumstance of
+horror. This related to what were called the refuse-slaves. Many people
+in Kingston were accustomed to speculate in the purchase of those, who
+were left after the first day's sale. They then carried them out into
+the country, and retailed them. Mr. Ross declared, that he had seen
+these landed in a very wretched state, sometimes in the agonies of
+death, and sold as low as for a dollar, and that he had known several
+expire in the piazzas of the vendue-master. The bare description
+superseded the necessity of any remark. Yet these were the familiar
+incidents of the Slave Trade.
+
+But he would go back to the seamen. He would mention another cause of
+mortality, by which many of them lost their lives. In looking over
+Lloyd's list, no less than six vessels were cut off by the irritated
+natives in one year, and the crews massacred. Such instances were not
+unfrequent. In short, the history of this commerce was written
+throughout in characters of blood.
+
+He would next consider the effects of the abolition on those places
+where it was chiefly carried on. But would the committee believe, after
+all the noise which had been made on this subject, that the Slave Trade
+composed but a thirtieth part of the export trade of Liverpool, and that
+of the trade of Bristol it constituted a still less proportion? For the
+effects of the abolition on the general commerce of the kingdom, he
+would refer them to Mr. Irving; from whose evidence it would appear,
+that the medium value of the British manufactures, exported to Africa,
+amounted only to between four and five hundred thousand pounds annually.
+This was but a trifling sum. Surely the superior capital, ingenuity,
+application, and integrity of the British manufacturer would command new
+markets for the produce of his industry, to an equal amount, when this
+should be no more. One branch, however, of our manufactures, he
+confessed, would suffer from the abolition; and that was the manufacture
+of gunpowder; of which the nature of our connexion with Africa drew from
+us as much as we exported to all the rest of the world besides.
+
+He hastened, however, to another part of the argument. Some had said,
+"We wish to put an end to the Slave Trade, but we do not approve of your
+mode. Allow more time. Do not displease the legislatures of the West
+India islands. It is by them that those laws must be passed, and
+enforced, which will secure your object." Now he was directly at issue
+with these gentlemen. He could show, that the abolition was the only
+certain mode of amending the treatment of the slaves, so as to secure
+their increase: and that the mode which had been offered to him, was at
+once inefficacious and unsafe. In the first place, how could any laws,
+made by these legislatures, be effectual, whilst the evidence of Negroes
+was in no case admitted against White men? What was the answer from
+Grenada? Did it not state, "that they who were capable of cruelty, would
+in general be artful enough to prevent any but slaves from being
+witnesses of the fact?" Hence it had arisen, that when positive laws had
+been made, in some of the islands, for the protection of the slaves,
+they had been found almost a dead letter. Besides, by what law would you
+enter into every man's domestic concerns, and regulate the interior
+economy of his house and plantation? This would be something more than a
+general excise. Who would endure such a law? And yet on all these and
+innumerable other minutiae must depend the protection of the slaves,
+their comforts, and the probability of their increase. It was
+universally allowed, that the Code Noir had been utterly neglected in
+the French islands, though there was an officer appointed by the crown
+to see it enforced. The provisions of the Directorio had been but of
+little more avail in the Portuguese settlements, or the institution of a
+Protector of the Indians, in those of the Spaniards. But what degree or
+protection the slaves would enjoy might be inferred from the admission
+of a gentleman, by whom this very plan of regulation had been
+recommended, and who was himself no ordinary person, but a man of
+discernment and legal resources. He had proposed a limitation of the
+number of lashes to be given by the master or overseer for one offence.
+But, after all, he candidly confessed, that his proposal was not likely
+to be useful, while the evidence of slaves continued inadmissible
+against their masters. But he could even bring testimony to the
+inefficacy of such regulations. A wretch in Barbados had chained a Negro
+girl to the floor, and flogged her till she was nearly expiring. Captain
+Cook and Major Fitch, hearing her cries, broke open the door and found
+her. The wretch retreated from their resentment, but cried out
+exultingly, "that he had only given her thirty-nine lashes (the number
+limited by law) at any one time; and that he had only inflicted this
+number three times since the beginning of the night," adding, "that he
+would prosecute them for breaking open his door; and that he would flog
+her to death for all any one, if he pleased; and that he would give her
+the fourth thirty-nine before morning."
+
+But this plan of regulation was not only inefficacious, but unsafe. He
+entered his protest against the fatal consequences which might result
+from it. The Negroes were creatures like ourselves; but they were
+uninformed, and their moral character was debased. Hence they were unfit
+for civil rights. To use these properly they must be gradually restored
+to that level, from which they had been so unjustly degraded. To allow
+them an appeal to the laws, would be to awaken in them a sense of the
+dignity of their nature. The first return of life, after a swoon, was
+commonly a convulsion, dangerous at once to the party himself and to all
+around him. You should first prepare them for the situation, and not
+bring the situation to them. To be under the protection of the law was
+in fact to be a freeman; and to unite slavery and freedom in one
+condition was impracticable. The abolition, on the other hand, was
+exactly such an agent as the case required. All hopes of supplies from
+the coast being cut off, breeding would henceforth become a serious
+object of attention; and the care of this, as including better clothing,
+and feeding, and milder discipline, would extend to innumerable
+particulars, which an act of assembly could neither specify nor enforce.
+The horrible system, too, which many had gone upon, of working out their
+slaves in a few years, and recruiting their gangs with imported
+Africans, would receive its death-blow from the abolition of the trade.
+The opposite would force itself on the most unfeeling heart. Ruin would
+stare a man in the face, if he were not to conform to it. The
+non-resident owners would then express themselves in the terms of Sir
+Philip Gibbs, "that he should consider it as the fault of his manager,
+if he were not to keep up the number of his slaves." This reasoning
+concerning the different tendencies of the two systems was self-evident;
+but facts were not wanting to confirm it. Mr. Long had remarked, that
+all the insurrections and suicides in Jamaica had been found among the
+imported slaves, who, not having lost the consciousness of civil rights,
+which they had enjoyed in their own country, could not brook the
+indignities to which they were subjected in the West Indies. An instance
+in point was afforded also by what had lately taken place in the island
+of Dominica. The disturbance there had been chiefly occasioned by some
+runaway slaves from the French islands. But what an illustration was it
+of his own doctrine to say, that the slaves of several persons, who had
+been treated with kindness, were not among the number of the insurgents
+on that occasion!
+
+But when persons coolly talked of putting an end to the Slave Trade
+through the medium of the West India legislatures, and of gradual
+abolition, by means of regulations, they surely forgot the miseries
+which this horrid traffic occasioned in Africa during every moment of
+its continuance. This consideration was conclusive with him, when called
+upon to decide whether the Slave Trade should be tolerated for a while,
+or immediately abolished. The divine law against murder was absolute and
+unqualified. Whilst we were ignorant of all these things, our sanction
+of them might, in some measure, be pardoned. But now, when our eyes were
+opened, could we tolerate them for a moment, unless we were ready at
+once to determine, that gain should be our god, and, like the heathens
+of old, were prepared to offer up human victims at the shrine of our
+idolatry?
+
+This consideration precluded also the giving heed for an instant to
+another plea, namely, that if we were to abolish the trade it would be
+proportionably taken up by other nations.  But, whatever other nations
+did, it became Great Britain, in every point of view, to take a forward
+part. One half of this guilty commerce had been carried on by her
+subjects. As we had been great in crime we should be early in our
+repentance. If Providence had showered his blessings upon us in
+unparalleled abundance, we should show ourselves grateful for them by
+rendering them subservient to the purposes for which they were intended.
+There would be a day of retribution, wherein we should have to give an
+account of all those talents, faculties, and opportunities with which we
+have been intrusted. Let it not then appear that our superior power had
+been employed to oppress our fellow-creatures, and our superior light to
+darken the creation of God. He could not but look forward with delight
+to the happy prospects which opened themselves to his view in Africa,
+from the abolition of the Slave Trade, when a commerce, justly deserving
+that name, should be established with her; not like that, falsely so
+called, which now subsisted, and which all who were interested for the
+honour of the commercial character (though there were no superior
+principle) should hasten to disavow. Had this trade indeed been ever so
+profitable, his decision would have been in no degree affected by that
+consideration. "Here's the smell of blood on the hand still, and all the
+perfumes of Arabia cannot sweeten it."
+
+He doubted whether it was not almost an act of degrading condescension
+to stoop to discuss the question in the view of commercial interest. On
+this ground, however, he was no less strong than on every other. Africa
+abounded with productions of value, which she would gladly exchange for
+our manufactures, when these were not otherwise to be obtained: and to
+what an extent her demand might then grow, exceeded almost the powers of
+computation. One instance already existed of a native king, who being
+debarred by his religion the use of spirituous liquors, and therefore
+not feeling the irresistible temptation to acts of rapine which they
+afforded to his countrymen, had abolished the Slave Trade throughout all
+his dominions, and was encouraging an honest industry.
+
+For his own part, he declared that, interested as he might be supposed
+to be in the final event of the question, he was comparatively
+indifferent as to the present decision of the House upon it. Whatever
+they might do, the people of Great Britain, he was confident, would
+abolish the Slave Trade when, as would then soon happen, its injustice
+and cruelty should be fairly laid before them. It was a nest of
+serpents, which would never have existed so long but for the darkness in
+which they lay hid. The light of day would now be let in on them, and
+they would vanish from the sight. For himself, he declared he was
+engaged in a work which he would never abandon; the consciousness of the
+justice of his cause would carry him forward, though he were alone; but
+he could not but derive encouragement from considering with whom he was
+associated. Let us not, he said, despair; it is a blessed cause, and
+success ere long will crown our exertions. Already we have gained one
+victory; we have obtained for these poor creatures the recognition of
+their human nature[A], which, for a while, was most shamefully denied
+them. This is the first fruits of our efforts; let us persevere, and our
+triumph will be complete. Never, never, will we desist till we have
+wiped away this scandal from the Christian name; till we have released
+ourselves from the load of guilt under which we at present labour; and
+till we have extinguished every trace of this bloody traffic, which our
+posterity, looking back to the history of these enlightened times, will
+scarcely believe had been suffered to exist so long, a disgrace and a
+dishonour to our country.
+
+[Footnote A: This point was actually obtained by the evidence before the
+House of Commons; for, after this, we heard no more of them as an
+inferior race.]
+
+He then moved, that the chairman be instructed to move for leave to
+bring in a bill to prevent the further importation of slaves into the
+British colonies in the West Indies.
+
+Colonel Tarleton immediately rose up, and began by giving an historical
+account of the trade from the reign of Elizabeth to the present time. He
+then proceeded to the sanction which parliament had always given it;
+hence it could not then be withdrawn without a breach of faith: hence,
+also, the private property embarked in it was sacred; nor could it be
+invaded, unless an adequate compensation were given in return.
+
+They who had attempted the abolition of the trade were led away by a
+mistaken humanity; the Africans themselves had no objection to its
+continuance.
+
+With respect to the middle passage, he believed the mortality there to
+be on an average only five in the hundred; whereas in regiments sent out
+to the West Indies, the average loss in the year was about ten and a
+half per cent.
+
+The Slave Trade was absolutely necessary, if we meant to carry on our
+West India commerce; for many attempts had been made to cultivate the
+lands in the different islands by white labourers, but they had always
+failed.
+
+It had also the merit of keeping up a number of seamen in readiness for
+the state. Lord Rodney had stated this as one of its advantages on the
+breaking out of a war. Liverpool alone could supply nine hundred and
+ninety-three seamen annually.
+
+He would now advert to the connexions dependent upon the African trade.
+It was the duty of the House to protect the planters, whose lives had
+been, and were then, exposed to imminent, dangers, and whose property
+had undergone an unmerited, depreciation. To what could this
+depreciation, and to what could the late insurrection at Dominica be
+imputed, which had been saved from horrid carnage and midnight-butchery
+only by the adventitious arrival of two British regiments? They could
+only be attributed to the long delayed question of the abolition of the
+Slave Trade; and if this question were to go much longer unsettled,
+Jamaica would be endangered also.
+
+To members of landed property he would observe, that the abolition would
+lessen the commerce of the country, and increase the national debt and
+the number of their taxes. The minister, he hoped, who patronized this
+wild scheme had some new pecuniary resource in store to supply the
+deficiencies it would occasion.
+
+To the mercantile members he would speak thus: "A few ministerial men in
+the house had been gifted with religious inspiration, and this had been
+communicated to other eminent personages in it: these enlightened
+philanthropists had discovered that it was necessary, for the sake of
+humanity, and for the honour of the nation, that the merchants concerned
+in the African trade should be persecuted, notwithstanding the sanction
+of their trade by Parliament, and notwithstanding that such persecution
+must aggrandize the rivals of Great Britain." Now how did this language
+sound? It might have done in the twelfth century, when all was bigotry
+and superstition; but let not a mistaken humanity, in these enlightened
+times, furnish a colourable pretext for any injurious attack on property
+or character.
+
+These things being considered, he should certainly oppose the measure in
+contemplation. It would annihilate a trade, whose exports amounted to
+eight hundred thousand pounds annually, and which employed a hundred and
+sixty vessels, and more than five thousand seamen. It would destroy also
+the West India trade, which was of the annual value of six millions; and
+which employed one hundred and sixty thousand tons of shipping, and
+seamen in proportion. These were objects of too much importance to the
+country to be hazarded on an unnecessary speculation.
+
+Mr. Grosvenor then rose. He complimented the humanity of Mr.
+Wilberforce, though he differed from him on the subject of his motion.
+He himself had read only the privy council report, and he wished for no
+other evidence. The question had then been delayed two years; had the
+abolition been so clear a point as it was said to be, it could not have
+needed either so much evidence or time.
+
+He had heard a good deal about kidnapping, and other barbarous
+practices. He was sorry for them. But these were the natural
+consequences of the laws of Africa; and it became us as wise men to turn
+them to our own advantage. The Slave Trade was certainly not an amiable
+trade. Neither was that of a butcher; but yet it was a very necessary
+one.
+
+There was great reason to doubt the propriety of the present motion. He
+had twenty reasons for disapproving it. The first was, that the thing
+was impossible. He needed not, therefore to give the rest. Parliament,
+indeed might relinquish the trade. But to whom? To foreigners, who would
+continue it, and without the humane regulations which were applied to it
+by his countrymen.
+
+He would give advice to the House on this subject, in the words which
+the late Alderman Beckford used a different occasion:--"Meddle, not with
+troubled waters; they will be found to be bitter waters; and the waters
+of affliction." He again admitted, that the Slave Trade was not an
+amiable trade; but he would not gratify his humanity at the expense of
+the interests of his country; and he thought we should not too curiously
+inquire into the unpleasant circumstances which attended it.
+
+Mr. James Martin succeeded Mr. Grosvenor. He said he had been long aware
+how much self-interest could pervert the judgment; but he was not
+apprized of the full power of it, till the Slave Trade became a subject
+of discussion. He had always conceived that the custom of trafficing in
+human beings had been incautiously begun, and without any reflection
+upon it; for he never could believe that any man, under the influence of
+moral principles, could suffer himself knowingly to carry on a trade
+replete with fraud, cruelty, and destruction; with destruction indeed,
+of the worst kind, because it subjected the sufferers to a lingering
+death. But he found now, that even such a trade as this could be
+sanctioned.
+
+It was well observed, in the petition from the University of Cambridge
+against the Slave Trade, "that a firm belief in the providence of a
+benevolent Creator assured them that no system, founded on the
+oppression of one part of mankind, could be beneficial to another." He
+felt much concern, that in an assembly of the representatives of the
+country, boasting itself zealous, not only for the preservation of its
+own liberties, but for the general rights of mankind, it should be
+necessary to say a single word upon such a subject; but the
+deceitfulness of the human heart was such, as to change the appearances
+of truth, when it stood in opposition to self-interests. And he had to
+lament that even among those, whose public duty it was to cling to the
+universal and eternal principles of truth, justice, and humanity, there
+were found some who could defend that which was unjust, fraudulent, and
+cruel.
+
+The doctrines he had heard that evening ought to have been reserved for
+times the most flagrantly profligate and abandoned. He never expected
+then to learn that the everlasting laws of righteousness were to give
+way to imaginary, political, and commercial expediency; and that
+thousands of our fellow-creatures were to be reduced to wretchedness,
+that individuals might enjoy opulence, or government a revenue.
+
+He hoped that the House, for the sake of its own character, would
+explode these doctrines with all the marks of odium they deserved; and
+that all parties would join in giving a death-blow to this execrable
+trade. The royal family would, he expected, from their known
+benevolence, patronize the measure. Both Houses of Parliament were now
+engaged in the prosecution of a gentleman accused of cruelty and
+oppression in the East. But what were these cruelties, even if they
+could be brought home to him, when compared in number and degree to
+those which were every day and every hour committed in the abominable
+traffic which was now under their discussion! He considered, therefore,
+both Houses of Parliament as pledged upon this occasion. Of the support
+of the bishops he could have no doubt; because they were to render
+Christianity amiable, both by their doctrine and their example. Some of
+the inferior clergy had already manifested a laudable zeal in behalf of
+the injured Africans. The University of Cambridge had presented a
+petition to that House worthy of itself. The sister-university had, by
+one of her representatives, given sanction to the measure. Dissenters of
+various denominations, but particularly the Quakers, (who, to their
+immortal honour, had taken the lead in it,) had vied with those of the
+Established Church in this amiable contest. The first counties, and some
+of the largest trading towns, in the kingdom had espoused the cause. In
+short, there had never been more unanimity in the country, than in this
+righteous attempt.
+
+With such support, and with so good a cause, it would be impossible to
+fail. Let but every man stand forth who had at any time boasted of
+himself as an Englishman, and success would follow. But if he were to be
+unhappily mistaken as to the result, we must give up the name of
+Englishmen. Indeed, if we retained it, we should be the greatest
+hypocrites in the world; for we boasted of nothing more than of our own
+liberty; we manifested the warmest indignation at the smallest personal
+insult; we professed liberal sentiments towards other nations: but to do
+these things, and to continue such a traffic, would be to deserve the
+hateful character before mentioned. While we could hardly bear the sight
+of anything resembling slavery, even as a punishment, among ourselves,
+how could we consistently entail an eternal slavery upon others?
+
+It had been frequently, but most disgracefully, said, that "we should
+not be too eager in setting the example: let the French begin it." Such
+a sentiment was a direct libel upon the ancient, noble, and generous
+character of this nation. We ought, on the other hand, under the
+blessings we enjoyed, and under the high sense we entertained of our own
+dignity as a people, to be proudly fearful, lest other nations should
+anticipate our design, and obtain the palm before us. It became us to
+lead. And if others should not follow us, it would belong to them to
+glory in the shame of trampling under foot the laws of reason, humanity,
+and religion.
+
+This motion, he said, came strongly recommended to them. The honourable
+member who introduced it was justly esteemed for his character. He was
+the representative, too of a noble county, which had been always ready
+to take the lead in every public measure for the good of the community,
+or for the general benefit of mankind; of a county, too, which had had
+the honour of producing a Saville. Had his illustrious predecessor been
+alive, he would have shown the same zeal on the same occasion. The
+preservation of the unalienable rights of all his fellow-creatures was
+one of the chief characteristics of that excellent citizen. Let every
+member in that House imitate him in the purity of their conduct and in
+the universal rectitude of their measures, and they would pay the same
+tender regard to the rights of other countries as to those of their own;
+and, for his part, he should never believe those persons to be sincere
+who were loud in their professions of love of liberty, if he saw that
+love confined to the narrow circle of one community, which ought to be
+extended to the natural rights of every inhabitant of the globe.
+
+But we should be better able to bring ourselves up to this standard of
+rectitude, if we were to put ourselves into the situation of those whom
+we oppressed. This was the rule of our religion. What should we think of
+those who should say, that it was their interest to injure us?  But he
+hoped we should not deceive ourselves so grossly as to imagine that it
+was our real interest to oppress any one. The advantages to be obtained
+by tyranny were imaginary, and deceitful to the tyrant; and the evils
+they caused to the oppressed were grievous, and often insupportable.
+
+Before he sat down, he would apologize if he had expressed himself too
+warmly on this subject. He did not mean to offend any one. There were
+persons connected with the trade, some of whom he pitied on account of
+the difficulty of their situation. But he should think most contemptibly
+of himself as a man if he could talk on this traffic without emotion. It
+would be a sign to him of his own moral degradation. He regretted his
+inability to do justice to such a cause; but if, in having attempted to
+forward it, he had shown the weakness of his powers, he must console
+himself with the consideration, that he felt more solid comfort in
+having acted up to sound public principles, than he could have done from
+the exercise of the most splendid talents, against the conviction of his
+conscience.
+
+Mr. Burdon rose, and said he was embarrassed to know how to act. Mr.
+Wilberforce had in a great measure met his ideas. Indeed he considered
+himself as much in his hands; but he wished to go gradually to the
+abolition of the trade. He wished to give time to the planters to
+recruit their stocks. He feared the immediate abolition might occasion a
+monopoly among such of them as were rich, to the detriment of the less
+affluent. We ought, like a judicious physician, to follow nature, and to
+promote a gradual recovery.
+
+Mr. Francis rose next. After complimenting Mr. Wilberforce, he stated
+that personal considerations might appear to incline him to go against
+the side which he was about to take, namely, that of strenuously
+supporting his motion. Having himself an interest in the West Indies, he
+thought that what he should submit to the House would have the double
+effect of evidence, and argument; and he stated most unequivocally his
+opinion, that the abolition of the Slave Trade would tend materially to
+the benefit of the West Indies.
+
+The arguments urged by the honourable mover were supported by the facts,
+which he had adduced from the evidence, more strongly than any arguments
+had been supported in any speech he had ever heard. He wished, however,
+that more of these facts had been introduced into the debate; for they
+were apt to have a greater effect upon the mind than mere reasonings,
+however just and powerful. Many had affirmed that the Slave Trade was
+politic and expedient; but it was worthy of remark, that no man had
+ventured to deny that it was criminal. Criminal, however, he declared it
+to be in the highest degree; and he believed it was equally impolitic.
+Both its inexpediency and injustice had been established by the
+honourable mover. He dwelt much on the unhappy situation of the negroes
+in the West Indies, who were without the protection of government or of
+efficient laws, and subject to the mere caprice of men, who were at once
+the parties, the judges, and the executioners.
+
+He instanced an overseer, who, having thrown a negro into a copper of
+boiling cane-juice, for a trifling offence, was punished merely by the
+loss of his place, and by being obliged to pay the value of the slave.
+He stated another instance of a girl of fourteen, who was dreadfully
+whipped for coming too late to her work. She fell down motionless after
+it; and was then dragged along the ground, by the legs, to an hospital;
+where she died. The murderer, though tried, was acquitted by a jury of
+his peers, upon the idea, that it was impossible a master could destroy
+his own property. This was a notorious fact. It was published in the
+_Jamaica Gazette;_ and it had even happened since the question of the
+abolition had been started.
+
+The only argument used against such cruelties, was the master's interest
+in the slave; but he urged the common cruelty to horses, in which their
+drivers had an equal interest with the drivers of men in the colonies,
+as a proof that this was no security. He had never heard an instance of
+a master being punished for the murder of his slave. The propagation of
+the slaves was so far from being encouraged, that it was purposely
+checked, because it was thought more profitable and less troublesome to
+buy a full grown negro, than to rear a child. He repeated that his
+interest might have inclined him to the other side of the question; but
+he did not choose to compromise between his interest and his duty; for,
+if he abandoned his duty, he should not be happy in this world; nor
+should he deserve happiness in the next.
+
+Mr. Pitt rose; but he said it was only to move, seeing that justice
+could not be done to the subject this evening, that the further
+consideration of the question might be adjourned to the next.
+
+Mr. Cawthorne and Colonel Tarleton both opposed this motion, and Colonel
+Phipps and Lord Carhampton supported it.
+
+Mr. Fox said, the opposition to the adjournment was uncandid and
+unbecoming. They who opposed it well knew that the trade could not bear
+discussion. Let it be discussed; and, although there were symptoms of
+predetermination in some, the abolition of it must be carried. He would
+not believe that there could be found in the House of Commons men of
+such hard hearts and inaccessible understandings, as to vote an assent
+to its continuance, and then go home to their families, satisfied with
+their vote, after they had been once made acquainted with the subject.
+
+Mr. Pitt agreed with Mr. Fox, that from a full discussion of the subject
+there was every reason to augur that the abolition would be adopted.
+Under the imputations, with which this trade was loaded, gentlemen
+should remember, they could not do justice to their own characters,
+unless they stood up, and gave their reasons for opposing the abolition
+of it. It was unusual also to force any question of such importance to
+so hasty a decision. For his own part, it was his duty, from the
+situation in which he stood, to state fully his own sentiments on the
+question; and, however exhausted both he and the House might be, he was
+resolved it should not pass without discussion, as long as he had
+strength to utter a word upon it. Every principle that could bind a man
+of honour and conscience, would impel him to give the most powerful
+support he could to the motion for the abolition.
+
+The motion of Mr. Pitt was assented to, and the House was adjourned
+accordingly.
+
+On the next day the subject was resumed. Sir William Yonge rose, and
+said, that, though he differed from the honourable mover, he had much
+admired his speech of the last evening. Indeed the recollection of it
+made him only the more sensible of the weakness of his own powers; and
+yet, having what he supposed to be irrefragable arguments in his
+possession, he felt emboldened to proceed.
+
+And, first, before he could vote for the abolition, he wished to be
+convinced, that, whilst Britain were to lose, Africa would gain. As for
+himself, he hated a traffic in men, and joyfully anticipated its
+termination at no distant period under a wise system of regulation: but
+he considered the present measure as crude and indolent; and as
+precluding better and wiser measures, which were already in train. A
+British Parliament should attain not only the best ends, but by the
+wisest means.
+
+Great Britain might abandon her share of this trade, but she could not
+abolish it. Parliament was not an assembly of delegates from the powers
+of Europe, but of a single nation. It could not therefore suppress the
+trade; but would eventually aggravate those miseries incident to it,
+which every enlightened man must acknowledge, and every good man must
+deplore. He wished the traffic for ever closed. But other nations were
+only waiting for our decision, to seize the part we should leave them.
+The new projects of these would be intemperate; and, in the zeal of
+rivalship, the present evils of comparatively sober dealing would be
+aggravated beyond all estimate in this new and heated auction of bidders
+for life and limb. We might, indeed, by regulation give an example of
+new principles of policy and of justice; but if we were to withdraw
+suddenly from this commerce, like Pontius Pilate, we should wash our
+hands, indeed, but we should not be innocent as to the consequences.
+
+On the first agitation of this business, Mr. Wilberforce had spoken
+confidently of other nations following our example. But had not the
+National Assembly of France referred the Slave Trade to a select
+committee, and had not that committee rejected the measure of its
+abolition? By the evidence it appeared, that the French and Spaniards
+were then giving bounties to the Slave Trade; that Denmark was desirous
+of following it; that America was encouraging it; and that the Dutch had
+recognized its necessity, and recommended its recovery. Things were bad
+enough indeed as they were, but he was sure this rivalship would make
+them worse.
+
+He did not admit the disorders imputed to the trade in all their extent.
+Pillage and kidnapping could not be general, on account of the
+populousness of the country; though too frequent instances of it had
+been proved. Crimes might be falsely imputed. This he admitted; but only
+partially. Witchcraft, he believed, was the secret of poisoning, and
+therefore deserved the severest punishment. That there should be a
+number of convictions for adultery, where polygamy was a custom, was not
+to be wondered at; but he feared, if a sale of these criminals were to
+be done away, massacre would be the substitute.
+
+An honourable member had asked on a former day, "Is it an excuse for
+robbery to say that another would hare committed it?" But the Slave
+Trade did not necessarily imply robbery. Not long since Great Britain
+sold her convicts, indirectly at least, to slavery; but he was no
+advocate for the trade. He wished it had begun, and that it might soon
+terminate. But the means were not adequate to the end proposed.
+
+Mr. Burke had said on a former occasion, "that in adopting measure we
+must prepare to pay the price of our virtue." He was ready to pay his
+share of that price; but the effect of the purchase must be first
+ascertained. If they did not estimate this, it was not benevolence, but
+dissipation. Effects were to be duly appreciated; and though statesmen
+might rest everything on a manifesto of causes, the humbler moralist,
+meditating peace and good will towards men, would venture to call such
+statesmen responsible for consequences.
+
+In regard to the colonies, a sudden abolition would be oppression. The
+legislatures there should be led, and not forced, upon this occasion. He
+was persuaded they would act wisely to attain the end pointed out to
+them. They would see that a natural increase of their negroes might be
+effected by an improved system of legislation; and that in the result
+the Slave Trade would be no longer necessary.
+
+A sudden abolition, also, would occasion dissatisfaction there. Supplies
+were necessary for some time to come. The negroes did not yet generally
+increase by birth. The gradation of ages was not yet duly filled. These
+and many defects might be remedied, but not suddenly.
+
+It would cause, also, distress there. The planters, not having their
+expected supplies, could not discharge their debts; hence their slaves
+would be seized and sold. Nor was there any provision in this case
+against the separation of families, except as to the mother and infant
+child. These separations were one of the chief outrages complained of in
+Africa. Why, then, should we promote them in the West Indies? The
+confinement on board a slave-ship had been also bitterly complained of;
+but, under distraint for the debt of a master, the poor slave might
+linger in a gaol twice or thrice the time of the Middle Passage.
+
+He again stated his abhorrence of the Slave Trade; but as a resource,
+though he hoped but a temporary one, it was of such consequence to the
+existence of the country, that it could not suddenly be withdrawn. The
+value, of the imports and exports between Great Britain and the West
+Indies, including the excise and customs, was between seven and eight
+millions annually; and the tonnage of the ships employed about an eighth
+of the whole tonnage of these kingdoms.
+
+He complained that in the evidence the West Indian planters had been by
+no means spared. Cruel stories had been hastily and lightly told against
+them. Invidious comparisons had been made to their detriment; but it was
+well known that one of our best comic writers, when he wished to show
+benevolence in its fairest colours, had personified it in the character
+of the West Indian. He wished the slave might become as secure as the
+apprentice in this country; but it was necessary that the alarms
+concerning the abolition of the Slave Trade should, in the mean time, be
+quieted; and he trusted that the good sense and true benevolence of the
+House would reject the present motion.
+
+Mr. Matthew Montagu rose and said a few words in support of the motion;
+and after condemning the trade in the strongest manner, he declared,
+that as long as he had life he would use every faculty of his body and
+mind in endeavouring to promote its abolition.
+
+Lord John Russell succeeded Mr. Montagu. He said, that although slavery
+was repugnant to his feelings, he must vote against the abolition as
+visionary and delusive. It was a feeble attempt, without the power, to
+serve the cause of humanity. Other nations would take up the trade.
+Whenever a bill of wise regulation should be brought forward, no man
+would be more ready than himself to lend his support. In this way the
+rights of humanity might be asserted without injury to others. He hoped
+he should not incur censure by his vote; for, let his understanding be
+what it might, he did not know that he had, notwithstanding the
+assertions of Mr. Fox, an inaccessible heart.
+
+Mr. Stanley (agent for the islands) rose next. He felt himself called
+upon, he said, to refute the many calumnies which had for years been
+propagated against the planters, (even through the medium of the pulpit,
+which should have been employed to better purposes,) and which had at
+length produced the mischievous measure, which was now under the
+discussion of the House. A cry had been sounded forth, and from one end
+of the kingdom to the other, as if there had never been a slave from
+Adam to the present time. But it appeared to him to have been the
+intention of Providence, from the very beginning, that one set of men
+should be slaves to another. This truth was as old as it was universal.
+It was recognised in every history, under every government, and in every
+religion. Nor did the Christian religion itself if the comments of Dr.
+Halifax, Bishop of Gloucester, on a passage of St. Paul's epistle to the
+Corinthians were true, show more repugnance to slavery than any other.
+
+He denied that the slaves were procured in the manner which had been
+described. It was the custom of all savages to kill their prisoners; and
+the Africans ought to be thankful that they had been carried safe into
+the British colonies.
+
+As to the tales of misery in the Middle Passage, they were gross
+falsehoods; and as to their treatment in the West Indies, he knew
+personally that it was, in general, indulgent and humane.
+
+With regard to promoting their increase by any better mode of treatment,
+he wished gentlemen would point it out to him. As a planter he would
+thank them for it. It was absurd to suppose that he and others were
+blind to their own interest. It was well known that one Creole slave was
+worth two Africans; and their interest, therefore, must suggest to them,
+that the propagation of slaves was preferable to the purchase of
+imported negroes, of whom one half very frequently died in the
+seasoning.
+
+He then argued the impossibility of beasts doing the work of the
+plantations. He endeavoured to prove that the number of these adequate
+to this purpose could not be supplied with food; and after having made
+many other observations, which, on account of the lowness of his voice,
+could not be heard, he concluded by objecting to the motion.
+
+Mr. William Smith rose. He wondered how the last speaker could have had
+the boldness to draw arguments from scripture in support of the Slave
+Trade. Such arguments could be intended only to impose on those who
+never took the trouble of thinking for themselves. Could it be thought
+for a moment, that the good sense of the House could be misled by a few
+perverted or misapplied passages, in direct opposition to the whole
+tenor, and spirit of Christianity; to the theory, he might say, of
+almost every religion, which had ever appeared in the world? Whatever
+might have been advanced, every body must feel that the Slave Trade
+could not exist an hour, if that excellent maxim, "to do to others as we
+would wish that others should do to us," had its proper influence on the
+conduct of men.
+
+Nor was Mr. Stanley more happy in his argument of the antiquity and
+universality of slavery. Because a practise had existed, did it
+necessarily follow that it was just? By this argument every crime might
+be defended from the time of Cain. The slaves of antiquity, however were
+in a situation far preferable to that of the negroes in the West Indies.
+A passage in Macrobius, which exemplified this in the strongest manner,
+was now brought to his recollection. "Our ancestors," says Macrobius,
+"denominated the master, father of the family, and the slave, domestic,
+with the intention of removing all odium from the condition of the
+master, and all contempt from that of the servant." Could this language
+be applied to the present state of West India slavery?
+
+It had been complained of by those who supported the trade, that they
+laboured under great disadvantages by being obliged to contend against
+the most splendid abilities which the House could boast. But he believed
+they laboured under one, which was worse and for which no talents could
+compensate; he meant the impossibility of maintaining their ground
+fairly on any of those principles, which every man within those walls
+had been accustomed, from his infancy, to venerate as sacred. He and his
+friends, too, laboured under some disadvantages. They had been charged
+with fanaticism. But what had Mr. Long said, when he addressed himself
+to those planters, who were desirous of attempting improvements on their
+estates? He advised them "not to be diverted by partial views, vulgar
+prejudices, or the ridicule which might spring from weak minds, from a
+benevolent attention to the public good." But neither by these nor by
+other charges were he or his friends to be diverted from the prosecution
+of their purpose. They were convinced of the rectitude and high
+importance of their object; and were determined never to desist from
+pursuing it, till it should be attained.
+
+But they had to struggle with difficulties far more serious. The West
+Indian interest which opposed them, was a collected body; of great
+power, affluence, connexions, and respectability.
+
+Artifice had also been employed. Abolition and emancipation had been so
+often confounded, and by those who knew better, that it must have been
+purposely done, to throw an odium on the measure which was now before
+them.
+
+The abolitionists had been also accused as the authors of the late
+insurrection in Dominica. A revolt had certainly taken place in that
+island. But revolts there had occured frequently before. Mr. Stanley
+himself, in attempting to fix this charge upon them, had related
+circumstance which amounted to their entire exculpation. He had said
+that all was quiet there till the disturbances in the French islands;
+when some negroes from the latter had found their way to Dominica, and
+had excited the insurrection in question. He had also said, that the
+negroes in our own islands hated the idea of the abolition; for they
+thought, as no new labourers were to come in, they should be subjected
+to increased hardships. But if they and their masters hated this same
+measure, how was this coincidence of sentiment to give birth to
+insurrections?
+
+Other fallacies, also, had been industriously propogated. Of the African
+trade, it had been said, that the exports amounted to a million
+annually; whereas, from the report on the table, it had on an average
+amounted to little more than half a million; and this included the
+articles for the purchase of African produce which were of the value of
+140,000_l._
+
+The East Indian Trade, also, had been said to depend on the West Indian
+and the African. In the first place, it had but very little connexion
+with the former at all. Its connexion with the latter was principally on
+account of the saltpetre which it furnished for making gunpowder. Out of
+nearly three millions of pounds in weight of the latter article, which
+had been exported in a year from this country, one-half had been sent to
+Africa alone; for the purposes, doubtless, of maintaining peace, and
+encouraging civilization among its various tribes! Four or five thousand
+persons were said, also, to depend for their bread in manufacturing guns
+for the African trade; and these, it was pretended, could not make guns
+of another sort.--But where lay the difficulty?--One of the witnesses
+had unravelled it. He had seen the negroes maimed by the bursting of
+these guns. They killed more from the butt than from the muzzle. Another
+had stated, that on the sea-coast the natives were afraid to fire a
+trade-gun.
+
+In the West Indian commerce, two hundred and forty thousand tons of
+shipping were stated to be employed. But here deception intruded itself
+again. This statement included every vessel, great and small, which went
+from the British West Indies to America, and to the foreign islands; and
+what was yet more unfair, all the repeated voyages of each throughout
+the year. The shipping, which could only fairly be brought into this
+account, did but just exceed half that which had been mentioned.
+
+In a similar manner had the islands themselves been overrated. Their
+value had been computed, for the information of the privy council, at
+thirty-six millions; but the planters had estimated them at seventy. The
+truth, however, might possibly lie between these extremes. He by no
+means wished to depreciate their importance; but he did not like that
+such palpable misrepresentations should go unnoticed.
+
+An honourable member (Colonel Tarleton) had disclaimed every attempt to
+interest the feelings of those present, but had desired to call them to
+reason and accounts. He also desired (though it was a question of
+feeling, if any one ever was,) to draw the attention of the committee to
+reason and accounts--to the voice of reason instead of that of
+prejudice, and to accounts in the place of idle apprehensions. The
+result, he doubted not, would be a full persuasion, that policy and
+justice were inseparable upon this, as upon every other occasion.
+
+The same gentleman had enlarged on the injustice of depriving the
+Liverpool merchants of a business, on which were founded their honour
+and their fortunes. On what part of it they founded their honour he
+could not conjecture, except from those passages in the evidence, where
+it appeared, that their agents in Africa had systematically practised
+every fraud and villany, which the meanest and most unprincipled cunning
+could suggest, to impose on the ignorance of those with whom they
+traded.
+
+The same gentleman had also lamented, that the evidence had not been
+taken upon oath. He himself lamented it too. Numberless facts had been
+related by eye-witnesses, called in support of the abolition, so
+dreadfully atrocious, that they appeared incredible; and seemed rather,
+to use the expression of Ossian, like "the histories of the days of
+other times." These procured for the trade a species of acquittal, which
+it could not have obtained, had the committee been authorised to
+administer an oath. He apprehended, also, in this case, that some other
+persons would have been rather more guarded in their testimony. Captain
+Knox would not then perhaps have told the committee, that six hundred
+slaves could have had comfortable room at night in his vessel of about
+one hundred and forty tons; when there could have been no more than five
+feet six inches in length, and fifteen inches in breadth, to about
+two-thirds of his number.
+
+The same gentleman had also dwelt upon the Slave Trade as a nursery for
+seamen. But it had appeared by the muster-rolls of the slave-vessels,
+then actually on the table of the house, that more than a fifth of them
+died in the service, exclusive of those who perished when discharged in
+the West Indies; and yet he had been instructed by his constituents to
+maintain this false position. His reasoning, too, was very curious; for,
+though numbers might die, yet as one half who entered were landsmen,
+seamen were continually forming. Not to dwell on the expensive cruelty
+of forming these seamen by the yearly destruction of so many hundreds,
+this very statement was flatly contradicted by the evidence. The
+muster-rolls from Bristol stated the proportion of landsmen in the trade
+there at one twelfth, and the proper officers of Liverpool itself at but
+a sixteenth of the whole employed. In the face again of the most glaring
+facts, others had maintained that the mortality in these vessels did not
+exceed that of other trades in the tropical climates. But the same
+documents, which proved that twenty-three per cent were destroyed in
+this wasting traffic, proved that in West India ships only about one and
+a half per cent were lost, including every casualty. But the very men,
+under whose management this dreadful mortality had been constantly
+occurring, had coolly said, that much of it might be avoided by proper
+regulations. How criminal then were they, who, knowing this, had neither
+publicly proposed, nor in their practice adopted, a remedy!
+
+The average loss of the slaves on board, which had been calculated by
+Mr. Wilberforce at twelve and a half per cent., had been denied. He
+believed this calculation, taking in all the circumstances connected
+with it, to be true; but that for years not less than one-tenth had so
+perished, he would challenge those concerned in the traffic to disprove.
+Much evidence had been produced on the subject; but the voyages had been
+generally selected. There was only one who had disclosed the whole
+account. This was Mr. Anderson of London, whose engagements in this
+trade had been very inconsiderable. His loss had only amounted to three
+per cent.; but, unfortunately for the slave-traders of Liverpool, his
+vessel had not taken above three-fourths of that number in proportion to
+the tonnage which they had stated to be necessary to the very existence
+of their trade.
+
+An honourable member (Mr. Grosvenor) had attributed the protraction of
+this business to those who had introduced it. But from whom did the
+motion for further evidence (when that of the privy council was refused)
+originate, but from the enemies of the abolition? The same gentleman had
+said, it was impossible to abolish the trade; but where was the
+impossibility of forbidding the further importation of slaves into our
+own colonies? and beyond this the motion did not extend.
+
+The latter argument had also been advanced by Sir William Yonge and
+others. But allowing it its full force, would there be no honour in the
+dereliction of such a commerce? Would it be nothing publicly to
+recognise great and just principles? Would our example be nothing!--Yes:
+every country would learn, from our experiment, that American colonies
+could be cultivated without the necessity of continual supplies equally
+expensive and disgraceful.
+
+But we might do more than merely lay down principles or propose
+examples. We might, in fact, diminish the evil itself immediately by no
+inconsiderable part,--by the whole of our own supply; and here he could
+not at all agree with the honourable baronet, in what seemed to him a
+commercial paradox, that the taking away from an open trade by far the
+largest customer, and the lessening of the consumption of the article,
+would increase both the competition and the demand, and of course all
+those mischiefs, which it was their intention to avert.
+
+That the civilization of the Africans was promoted, as had been
+asserted, by their intercourse with the Europeans, was void of
+foundation, as had appeared from the evidence. In manners and dishonesty
+they had indeed assimilated with those who frequented their coasts. But
+the greatest industry and the least corruption of morals were in the
+interior, where they were out of the way of this civilizing connexion.
+
+To relieve Africa from famine, was another of the benign reasons which
+had been assigned for continuing the trade. That famines had occurred
+there, he did not doubt; but that they should annually occur, and with
+such arithmetical exactness as to suit the demands of the Slave Trade,
+was a circumstance most extraordinary; so wonderful, indeed, that, could
+it once be proved, he should consider it as a far better argument in
+favour of the divine approbation of that trade, than any which had ever
+yet been produced.
+
+As to the effect of the abolition on the West Indies, it would give
+weight to every humane regulation which had been made; by substituting a
+certain and obvious interest, in the place of one depending upon chances
+and calculation. An honourable member (Mr. Stanley) had spoken of the
+impossibility of cultivating the estates there without further
+importations of negroes; and yet, of all the authorities he had brought
+to prove his case, there was scarcely one which might not be pressed to
+serve more or less effectually against him. Almost every planter he had
+named had found his negroes increase under the good treatment he had
+professed to give them; and it was an axiom, throughout the whole
+evidence, that, wherever they were well used, importations were not
+necessary. It had been said, indeed, by some adverse witnesses, that in
+Jamaica all possible means had been used to keep up the stock by
+breeding; but how preposterous was this, when it was allowed that the
+morals of the slaves had been totally neglected, and that the planters
+preferred buying a larger proportion of males than females!
+
+The misfortune was, that prejudice, and not reason, was the enemy to be
+subdued. The prejudices of the West Indians on these points were
+numerous and inveterate. Mr. Long himself had characterised them on this
+account, in terms which he should have felt diffident in using. But Mr.
+Long had shown his own prejudices also: for he justified the chaining of
+the Negroes on board the slave-vessels, on account of "their bloody,
+cruel, and malicious dispositions." But hear his commendation of some of
+the Aborigines of Jamaica, "who had miserably perished in caves, whither
+they had retired to escape the tyranny of the Spaniards. These," says
+he, "left a glorious monument of their having disdained to survive the
+loss of their liberty and their country." And yet this same historian
+could not perceive that this natural love of liberty might operate as
+strongly and as laudably in the African Negro, as in the Indian of
+Jamaica.
+
+He was concerned to acknowledge that these prejudices were yet further
+strengthened by resentment against those who had taken an active part in
+the abolition of the Slave Trade. But it was never the object of these
+to throw a stigma on the whole body of the West Indians; but to prove
+the miserable effects of the trade. This it was their duty to do; and
+if, in doing this, disgraceful circumstances had come out, it was not
+their fault; and it must never be forgotten that they were true.
+
+That the slaves were exposed to great misery in the islands, was true as
+well from inference as from facts: for what might not be expected from
+the use of arbitrary power, where the three characters of party, judge,
+and executioner were united! The slaves, too, were more capable on
+account of their passions, than the beasts in the field, of exciting the
+passions of their tyrants. To what a length the ill-treatment of them
+might be carried, might be learnt from, the instance which General
+Tottenham mentioned to have seen in the year 1780 in the streets of
+Bridge Town, Barbados: "A youth about nineteen (to use his own words in
+the evidence), entirely naked, with an iron collar about his neck,
+having five long projecting spikes. His body both before and behind was
+covered with wounds. His belly and thighs were almost cut to pieces,
+with running ulcers all over them; and a finger might have been laid in
+some of the weals. He could not sit down, because his hinder part was
+mortified; and it was impossible for him to lie down, on account of the
+prongs of his collar." He supplicated the General for relief. The latter
+asked who had punished him so dreadfully? The youth answered, his master
+had done it. And because he could not work, this same master, in the
+same spirit of perversion, which extorts from Scripture a justification
+of the Slave Trade, had fulfilled the apostolic maxim, that he should
+have nothing to eat. The use he meant to make of this instance was to
+show the unprotected state of the slaves. What must it be, where such an
+instance could pass not only unpunished, but almost unregarded! If, in
+the streets of London, but a dog were to be seen lacerated like this
+miserable man, how would the cruelty of the wretch be execrated, who had
+thus even abused a brute!
+
+The judicial punishments also inflicted upon the Negro showed the low
+estimation, in which, in consequence of the strength of old customs and
+deep-rooted prejudices, they were held. Mr. Edwards, in his speech to
+the Assembly at Jamaica, stated the following case, as one which had
+happened in one of the rebellions there. Some slaves surrounded the
+dwelling-house of their mistress. She was in bed with a lovely infant.
+They deliberated upon the means of putting her to death in torment. But
+in the end one of them reserved her for his mistress; and they killed
+her infant with an axe before her face. "Now," says Mr. Edwards,
+(addressing himself to his audience) "you will think that no torments
+were too great for such horrible excesses. Nevertheless I am of a
+different opinion. I think that death, unaccompanied with cruelty,
+should be the utmost exertion of human authority over our unhappy
+fellow-creatures." Torments, however, were always inflicted in these
+cases. The punishment was gibbeting alive, and exposing the delinquents
+to perish by the gradual effects of hunger, thirst, and parching sun; in
+which situation they were known to suffer for nine days, with a
+fortitude scarcely credible, never uttering a single groan. But horrible
+as the excesses might have been, which occasioned these punishments, it
+must be remembered, that they were committed by ignorant savages, who
+had been dragged from all they held most dear; whose patience had been
+exhausted by a cruel and loathsome confinement during their
+transportation; and whose resentment had been wound up to the highest
+pitch of fury by the lash of the driver.
+
+But he would now mention another instance, by way of contrast, out of
+the evidence. A child on board a slave-ship, of about ten months old,
+took sulk and would not eat. The captain flogged it with a cat; swearing
+that he would make it eat, or kill it. From this and other ill-treatment
+the child's legs swelled. He then ordered some water to be made hot to
+abate the swelling. But even his tender mercies were cruel; for the
+cook, on putting his hand into the water, said it was too hot. Upon this
+the captain swore at him, and ordered the feet to be put in. This was
+done. The nails and skin came off. Oiled cloths were then put round
+them. The child was at length tied to a heavy log. Two or three days
+afterwards, the captain caught it up again; and repeated that he would
+made it eat, or kill it. He immediately flogged it again, and in a
+quarter of an hour it died. But, after the child was dead, whom should
+the barbarian select to throw it overboard, but the wretched mother? In
+vain she started from the office. He beat her, till he made her take up
+the child and carry it to the side of the vessel. She then dropped it
+into the sea, turning her head the other way that she might not see it.
+Now it would naturally be asked, was not this captain also gibbeted
+alive? Alas! although the execrable barbarity of the European exceeded
+that of the Africans before mentioned, almost as much as his
+opportunities of instruction has been greater than theirs, no notice
+whatsoever was taken of this horrible action; and a thousand similar
+cruelties had been committed in this abominable trade with equal
+impunity: but he would say no more. He would vote for the abolition, not
+only as it would do away all the evils complained of in Africa and the
+Middle Passage; but as it would be the most effectual means of
+ameliorating the condition of those unhappy persons, who were still to
+continue slaves in the British colonies.
+
+Mr. Courtenay rose. He said, he could not but consider the assertion of
+Sir William Yonge as a mistake, that the Slave Trade, if abandoned by
+us, would fall into the hands of France. It ought to be recollected,
+with what approbation the motion for abolishing it, made by the late
+Mirabeau, had been received; although the situation of the French
+colonies might then have presented obstacles to carrying the measure
+into immediate execution. He had no doubt, if parliament were to begin,
+so wise and enlightened a body as the National Assembly would follow the
+example. But even if France were not to relinquish the trade, how could
+we, if justice required its abolition, hesitate as to our part of it?
+
+The trade, it had been said, was conducted upon the principles of
+humanity. Yes: we rescued the Africans from what we were pleased to call
+their wretched situation in their own; country, and then we took credit
+for our humanity; because, after having killed one half of them in the
+seasoning, we substituted what we were again pleased to call a better
+treatment than that which they would have experienced at home.
+
+It had been stated that the principle of war among savages was a general
+massacre. This was not true. They frequently adopted the captives into
+their own families; and, so far from massacring the women and children,
+they often gave them the protection which the weakness of their age and
+sex demanded.
+
+There could be no doubt, that the practice of kidnapping; prevailed in
+Africa. As to witchcraft, it had been made a crime in the reign of James
+the First in this country, for the purpose of informations; and how much
+more likely were informations to take place in Africa, under the
+encouragement afforded by the Slave Trade! This trade, it had been said,
+was sanctioned by twenty-six acts of parliament. He did not doubt but
+fifty-six might be found, by which parliament had sanctioned witchcraft
+of the existence of which we had now no belief whatever....
+
+It had been said by Mr. Stanley that the pulpit had been used as an
+instrument of attack on the Slave Trade. He was happy to learn it had
+been so well employed; and he hoped the Bishops would rise up in the
+House of Lords, with the virtuous indignation which became them, to
+abolish a traffic so contrary to humanity, justice, and religion.
+
+He entreated every member to recollect, that on his vote that night
+depended the happiness of millions; and that it was then in his power to
+promote a measure, of which the benefits would be felt over one whole
+quarter of the globe; that the seeds of civilization might, by the
+present bill, be sown all over Africa: and the first principles of
+humanity be established in regions where they had hitherto been excluded
+by the existence of this execrable trade.
+
+Lord Carysfort rose, and said, that the great cause of the abolition had
+flourished by the manner in which it had been opposed. No one argument
+of solid weight had been adduced against it. It had been shown, but
+never disproved, that the colonial laws were inadequate to the
+protection of the slaves; that the punishments of the latter were most
+unmerciful; that they were deprived of the right of self-defence against
+any White man; and, in short, that the system was totally repugnant to
+the principles of the British constitution.
+
+Colonel Phipps followed Lord Carysfort. He denied that this was a
+question in which the rights of humanity and the laws of nature were
+concerned. The Africans became slaves in consequence of the constitution
+of their own governments. These were founded in absolute despotism.
+Every subject was an actual slave. The inhabitants were slaves to the
+great men, and the great men were slaves to the prince. Prisoners of
+war, too, were by law subject to slavery. Such being the case, he saw no
+more cruelty in disposing of them to our merchants, than to those of any
+other nation. Criminals, also, in cases of adultery and witchcraft,
+became slaves by the same laws.
+
+It had been said, that there were no regulations in the West Indies for
+the protection of slaves. There were several; though he was ready to
+admit that more were necessary; and he would go in this respect as far
+as humanity might require. He had passed ten months in Jamaica, where he
+had never seen any such acts of cruelty as had been talked of. Those
+which he had seen were not exercised by the Whites, but by the Blacks.
+The dreadful stories which had been told, ought no more to fix a general
+stigma upon the planters, than the story of Mrs. Brownrigg to stamp this
+polished metropolis with the general brand of murder. There was once a
+haberdasher's wife (Mrs. Nairne) who locked up her apprentice girl, and
+starved her to death; but did ever any body think of abolishing
+haberdashery on this account? He was persuaded the Negroes in the West
+Indies were cheerful and happy. They were fond of ornaments; but it was
+not the characteristic of miserable persons to show a taste for finery.
+Such a taste, on the contrary, implied a cheerful and contented mind. He
+was sorry to differ from his friend Mr. Wilberforce, but he must oppose
+his motion.
+
+Mr. Pitt rose, and said, that from the first hour of his having had the
+honour to sit in parliament down to the present, among all the
+questions, whether political or personal, in which it had been his
+fortune to take a share, there had never been one in which his heart was
+so deeply interested as in the present; both, on account of the serious
+principles it involved, and the consequences connected with it.
+
+The present was not a mere question of feeling. The argument, which
+ought, in his opinion, to determine the committee, was, that the Slave
+Trade was unjust. It was, therefore, such a trade as it was impossible
+for him to support, unless it could be first proved to him, that there
+were no laws of morality binding upon nations; and that it was not the
+duty of a legislature to restrain its subjects, from invading the
+happiness of other countries, and from violating; the fundamental
+principles of justice.
+
+Several had stated the impracticability of the measure before them. They
+wished to see the trade abolished; but there was some necessity for
+continuing it, which they conceived to exist. Nay, almost every, one, he
+believed, appeared to wish that the further importation of slaves might
+cease, provided, it could be made out that, the population of the West
+Indies could be maintained without it. He proposed, therefore, to
+consider the latter point; for, as the impracticability of keeping up
+the population there appeared to operate as the chief objection, he
+trusted that, by showing it to be ill founded, he should clear away all
+other obstacles whatever; so that, having no ground either of justice or
+necessity to stand upon, there could be no excuse left to the committee
+for resisting the present motion.
+
+He might reasonably, however, hope that they would not reckon any small
+or temporary disadvantage, which might arise from the abolition, to be a
+sufficient reason against it. It was surely not any slight degree of
+expediency, nor any small balance of profit, nor any light shades of
+probability on the one side, rather than on the other, which would
+determine them on this question. He asked pardon even for the
+supposition. The Slave Trade was an evil of such magnitude, that there
+must be a common wish in the committee at once to put an end to it, if
+there were no great and serious obstacles. It was a trade, by which
+multitudes of unoffending nations were deprived of the blessings of
+civilization, and had their peace and happiness invaded. It ought,
+therefore, to be no common expediency, it ought to be nothing less than
+the utter ruin of our islands, which it became those to plead, who took
+upon them to defend the continuance of it.
+
+He could not help thinking that the West India gentlemen had manifested
+an over great degree of sensibility as to the point in question; and
+that their alarms had been unreasonably excited upon it. He had examined
+the subject carefully for himself: and he would now detail those
+reasons, which had induced him firmly to believe, not only that no
+permanent mischief would follow from the abolition, but not even any
+such temporary inconvenience as could be stated to be a reason for
+preventing the House from agreeing to the motion before them; on the
+contrary, that the abolition itself would lay the foundation for the
+more solid improvement of all the various interests of those colonies.
+
+In doing this he should apply his observations chiefly to Jamaica, which
+contained more than half the slaves in the British West Indies; and if
+he should succeed in proving that no material detriment could arise to
+the population there, this would afford so strong a presumption with
+respect to the other islands, that the House could no longer hesitate
+whether they should, or should not, put a stop to this most horrid
+trade.
+
+In the twenty years ending in 1788, the annual loss of slaves in Jamaica
+(that is, the excess of deaths above the births,) appeared to be one in
+the hundred. In a preceding period the loss was greater; and, in a
+period before that greater still; there having been a continual
+gradation in the decrease through the whole time. It might fairly be
+concluded, therefore, that (the average logs of the last period being
+one per cent.) the loss in the former part of it would be somewhat more,
+and in the latter part somewhat less, than one per cent; insomuch that
+it might be fairly questioned, whether, by this time, the births and
+deaths in Jamaica might not be stated as nearly equal. It was to be
+added, that a peculiar calamity, which swept away fifteen thousand
+slaves, had occasioned a part of the mortality in the last-mentioned
+period. The probable loss, therefore, now to be expected, was very
+inconsiderable indeed.
+
+There was, however, one circumstance to be added, which the West India
+gentlemen, in stating this matter, had entirely overlooked; and which
+was so material, as clearly to reduce the probable diminution in the
+population of Jamaica down to nothing. In all the calculations he had
+referred to of the comparative number of births and deaths, all the
+Negroes in the island were included. The newly imported, who died in the
+seasoning, made apart; but these swelled, most materially, the number of
+the deaths. Now, as these extraordinary deaths would cease, as soon as
+the importation ceased, a deduction of them ought to be made from his
+present calculation.
+
+But the number of those, who thus died in the seasoning, would make up
+of itself nearly the whole of that one per cent. which had been stated.
+He particularly pressed an attention to this circumstance; for the
+complaint of being likely to want hands in Jamaica, arose from the
+mistake of including the present unnatural deaths, caused by the
+seasoning, among the natural and perpetual muses of mortality. These
+deaths, being erroneously taken into the calculations, gave the planters
+an idea that the numbers could not be kept up. These deaths, which were
+caused merely by the Slave Trade, furnished the very ground, therefore,
+on which the continuance of that trade had been thought necessary.
+
+The evidence as to this point was clear; for it would be found in that
+dreadful catalogue of deaths, arising from the seasoning and the
+passage, which the House had been condemned to look into, that one half
+died. An annual mortality of two thousand slaves in Jamaica might be
+therefore charged to the importation; which, compared with the whole
+number on the island, hardly fell short of the whole one per cent.
+decrease.
+
+Joining this with all the other considerations, he would then ask, could
+the decrease of the slaves in Jamaica be such--could the colonies be so
+destitute of means--could the planters, when by their own accounts they
+were establishing daily new regulations for the benefit of the
+slaves--could they, under all these circumstances, be permitted to plead
+that total impossibility of keeping up their number, which they had
+rested on, as being indeed the only possible pretext for allowing fresh
+importations from Africa? He appealed, therefore, to the sober judgment
+of all, whether the situation of Jamaica was such, as to justify a
+hesitation in agreeing to the present motion.
+
+It might be observed, also, that, when the importations should stop,
+that disproportion between the sexes, which was one of the obstacles to
+population, would gradually diminish; and a natural order of things be
+established. Through the want of this natural order, a thousand
+grievances were created, which it was impossible to define; and which it
+was in vain to think that, under such circumstances, we could cure. But
+the abolition, of itself, would work this desirable effect. The West
+Indians would then feel a near and urgent interest to enter into a
+thousand little details, which it was impossible for him to describe,
+but which would have the greatest influence on population. A foundation
+would thus be laid for the general welfare of the islands; a new system
+would rise up, the reverse of the old; and eventually both their general
+wealth and happiness would increase.
+
+He had now proved far more than he was bound to do; for, if he could
+only show that the abolition would not be ruinous, it would be enough.
+He could give up, therefore, three arguments out of four, through the
+whole of what he had said, and yet have enough left for his position. As
+to the Creoles, they would undoubtedly increase. They differed in this
+entirely from the imported slaves, who were both a burthen and a curse
+to themselves and others. The measure now proposed would operate like a
+charm; and, besides stopping all the miseries in Africa and the passage,
+would produce even more benefit in the West Indies than legal
+regulations could effect.
+
+He would now just touch upon the question of emancipation. A rash
+emancipation of the slaves would be mischievous. In that unhappy
+situation, to which our baneful conduct had brought ourselves and them,
+it would be no justice on either side to give them liberty. They were as
+yet incapable of it; but their situation might be gradually amended.
+They might be relieved from everything harsh and severe; raised from
+their present degraded state; and put under the protection of the law.
+Till then, to talk of emancipation was insanity. But it was the system
+of fresh importations, which interfered with these principles of
+improvement; and it was only the abolition which could establish them.
+This suggestion had its foundation in human nature. Wherever the
+incentive of honour, credit, and fair profit appeared, energy would
+spring up; and when these labourers should have the natural springs of
+human action afforded them, they would then rise to the natural level of
+human industry.
+
+From Jamaica he would now go to the other islands. In Barbadoes the
+slaves had rather increased. In St. Kitts the decrease for fourteen
+years had been but three-fourths per cent.; but here many of the
+observations would apply, which he had used in the case of Jamaica. In
+Antigua many had died by a particular calamity. But for this, the
+decrease would have been trifling. In Nevis and Montserrat there was
+little or no disproportion of the sexes; so that it might well be hoped,
+that the numbers would be kept up in these islands. In Dominica some
+controversy had arisen about the calculation; but Governor Orde had
+stated an increase of births above the deaths. From Grenada and St.
+Vincent's no accurate accounts had been delivered in answer to the
+queries sent them; but they were probably not in circumstances less
+favourable than in the other islands.
+
+On a full review, then, of the state of the Negro population in the West
+Indies, was there any serious ground of alarm from the abolition of the
+Slave Trade? Where was the impracticability, on which alone so many had
+rested their objections? Must we not blush at pretending, that it would
+distress our consciences to accede to this measure, as far as the
+question of the Negro population was concerned?
+
+Intolerable were the mischiefs of this trade, both in its origin, and
+through every stage of its progress. To say that slaves could be
+furnished us by fair and commercial means was ridiculous. The trade
+sometimes ceased, as during the late war. The demand was more or less
+according to circumstances. But how was it possible, that to a demand so
+exceedingly fluctuating the supply should always exactly accommodate
+itself? Alas! We made human beings the subject of commerce; we talked of
+them as such; and yet we would not allow them the common principle of
+commerce, that the supply must accommodate itself to the consumption. It
+was not from wars, then, that the slaves were chiefly procured. They
+were obtained in proportion as they were wanted. If a demand for slaves
+arose, a supply was forced in one way or other; and it was in vain,
+overpowered as we then were with positive evidence, as well as the
+reasonableness of the supposition, to deny that by the Slave Trade we
+occasioned all the enormities which had been alleged against it.
+
+Sir William Yonge had said, that if we were not to take the Africans
+from their country, they would be destroyed. But he had not yet read
+that all uncivilized nations destroyed their captives. We assumed,
+therefore, what was false. The very selling of them implied this; for,
+if they would sell their captives for profit, why should they not employ
+them so as to receive a profit also? Nay, many of them, while there was
+no demand from the slave merchants, were often actually so employed. The
+trade, too, had been suspended during the war; and it was never said, or
+thought, that any such consequence had then followed.
+
+The honourable baronet had also said, to justification of the Slave
+Trade, that witchcraft commonly implied poison, and was therefore a
+punishable crime; but did he recollect that not only the individual
+accused, but that his whole family, were sold as slaves? The truth was,
+we stopped the natural progress of civilization in Africa. We cut her
+off from the opportunity of improvement. We kept her down in a state of
+darkness, bondage, ignorance, and bloodshed. Was not this an awful
+consideration for this country? Look at the map of Africa, and see how
+little useful intercourse had been established on that vast continent!
+While other countries were assisting and enlightening each other, Africa
+alone had none of these benefits. We had obtained as yet only so much
+knowledge of her productions, as to show that there was a capacity for
+trade, which we checked. Indeed, if the mischiefs there were out of the
+question, the circumstance of the Middle Passage alone would, in his
+mind, be reason enough for the abolition. Such a scene as that of the
+slave-ships passing over with their wretched cargoes to the West Indies,
+if it could be spread before the eyes of the House, would be sufficient
+of itself to make them vote in favour of it; but when it could be added,
+that the interest even of the West Indies themselves rested on the
+accomplishment of this great event, he could not conceive an act of more
+imperious duty, than that which was imposed upon the House, of agreeing
+to the present motion.
+
+Sir Archibald Edmonstone rose, and asked whether the present motion went
+so far as to pledge those who voted for it to a total and immediate
+abolition.
+
+Mr. Alderman Watson rose next. He defended the Slave Trade as highly
+beneficial to the country, being one material branch of its commerce.
+But he could not think of the African trade without connecting it with
+the West Indian. The one hung upon the other. A third important branch
+also depended upon it, which was the Newfoundland fishery; the latter
+could not go on, if it were not for the vast quantity of inferior fish
+bought up for the Negroes in the West Indies, and which quite unfit for
+any other market. If, therefore, we destroyed the African, we destroyed
+the other trades. Mr. Turgot, he said, had recommended in the National
+Assembly of France the gradual abolition of the Slave Trade. He would,
+therefore, recommend it to the House to adopt the same measure, and to
+soften the rigours of slavery by wholesome regulations; but an immediate
+abolition he could not countenance.
+
+Mr. Fox at length rose. He observed that some expressions which he had
+used on the preceding day, had been complained of as too harsh and
+severe. He had since considered them, but he could not prevail upon
+himself to retract them; because, if any gentleman, after reading the
+evidence on the table, and attending to the debate, could avow himself
+an abettor of this shameful traffic in human flesh, it could only be
+either from some hardness of heart, or some difficulty of understanding,
+which he really knew not how to account for.
+
+Some had considered this question as a question of political, whereas,
+it was a question of personal, freedom. Political freedom was
+undoubtedly a great blessing; but when it came to be compared with
+personal, it sunk to nothing. To confound the two, served, therefore, to
+render all arguments on either perplexing and unintelligible. Personal
+freedom was the first right of every human being. It was a right, of
+which he who deprived a fellow-creature was absolutely criminal in so
+depriving him, and which he who withheld was no less criminal in
+withholding. He could not, therefore, retract his words with respect to
+any, who (whatever respect he might otherwise have for them) should, by
+their vote of that night, deprive their fellow-creatures of so great a
+blessing. Nay, he would go further. He would say, that if the House,
+knowing what the trade was by the evidence, did not, by their vote, mark
+to all mankind their abhorrence of a practice so savage, so enormous, so
+repugnant to all laws human and divine, they would consign their
+character to eternal infamy.
+
+That the pretence of danger to our West Indian islands from the
+abolition of the Slave Trade was totally unfounded, Mr. Wilberforce had
+abundantly proved; but if there were they who had not been satisfied
+with that proof, was it possible to resist the arguments of Mr. Pitt on
+the same subject? It had been shown, on a comparison of the births and
+deaths in Jamaica, that there was not now any decrease of the slaves.
+But if there had been, it would have made no difference to him in his
+vote; for, had the mortality been ever so great there, he should have
+ascribed it to the system of importing Negroes, instead of that of
+encouraging their natural increase. Was it not evident that the planters
+thought it more convenient to buy them fit for work, than to breed them?
+Why, then, was this horrid trade to be kept up?--To give the planters
+truly the liberty of misusing their slaves, so as to check population:
+for it was from ill-usage only that, in a climate so natural to them,
+their numbers could diminish. The very ground, therefore, on which the
+planters rested the necessity of fresh importations, namely, the
+destruction of lives in the West Indies, was itself the strongest
+argument that could be given, and furnished the most imperious call upon
+parliament for the abolition of the trade.
+
+Against this trade innumerable were the charges. An honourable member,
+Mr. Smith, had done well to introduce those tragical stories which had
+made such an impression upon the House. No one of these had been yet
+controverted. It had, indeed, been said; that the cruelty of the African
+captain to the child was too bad to be true; and we had been desired to
+look at the cross-examination of the witness, as if we should find
+traces of the falsehood in his testimony there. But his
+cross-examination was peculiarly honourable to his character; for, after
+he had been pressed in the closest manner by some able members of the
+House, the only inconsistency they could fix upon him was, whether the
+fact had happened on the same day of the same month of the year 1764 or
+the year 1765.
+
+But it was idle to talk of the incredibility of such instances. It was
+not denied that absolute power was exercised by the slave-captains; and
+if this was granted, all the cruelties charged upon them would naturally
+follow. Never did he hear of charges so black and horrible as those
+contained in the evidence on the table. They unfolded such a scene of
+cruelty, that if the House, with all their present knowledge of the
+circumstances, should dare to vote for its continuance, they must have
+nerves of which he had no conception. We might find instances, indeed,
+in history, of men violating the feelings of nature on extraordinary
+occasions. Fathers had sacrificed their sons and daughters, and husbands
+their wives; but to imitate their characters, we ought to have not only
+nerves as strong as the two Brutuses, but to take care that we had a
+cause as good; or that we had motives for such a dereliction of our
+feelings as patriotic as those which historians had annexed to these
+when they handed them to the notice of the world.
+
+But what was our motive in the case before us?--to continue a trade
+which was a wholesale sacrifice of a whole order and race of our
+fellow-creatures, which carried them away by force from their native
+country, in order to subject them to the mere will and caprice, the
+tyranny and oppression of other human beings, for their whole natural
+lives, them and their posterity for ever!! O most monstrous wickedness!
+O unparalleled barbarity! And, what was more aggravating, this most
+complicated scene of robbery and murder which mankind had ever
+witnessed, had been honoured by the name of trade.
+
+That a number of human beings should be at all times ready to be
+furnished as fair articles of commerce, just as our occasions might
+require, was absurd. The argument of Mr. Pitt on this head was
+unanswerable. Our demand was fluctuating: it entirely ceased at some
+times: at others it was great and pressing. How was it possible, on
+every sudden call, to furnish a sufficient return in slaves, without
+resorting to those execrable means of obtaining them, which were stated
+in the evidence? These were of three sorts, and he would now examine
+them.
+
+Captives in war, it was urged, were consigned either to death or
+slavery. This, however, he believed to be false in point of fact. But
+suppose it were true; did it not become us, with whom it was a custom,
+founded in the wisest policy, to pay the captives a peculiar respect and
+civility, to inculcate the same principles in Africa? But we were so far
+from doing this, that we encouraged wars for the sake of taking, not
+men's goods and possessions, but men themselves; and it was not the war
+which was the cause of the Slave Trade, but the Slave Trade which was
+the cause of the war. It was the practice of the slave-merchants to try
+to intoxicate the African kings in order to turn them to their purpose.
+A particular instance occurred in the evidence of a prince, who, when
+sober, resisted their wishes; but in the moment of inebriety he gave the
+word for war, attacked the next village, and sold the inhabitants to the
+merchants.
+
+The second mode was kidnapping. He referred the House to various
+instances of this in the evidence: but there was one in particular, from
+which we might immediately infer the frequency of the practice. A black
+trader had kidnapped a girl and sold her; but he was presently
+afterwards kidnapped and sold himself; and, when he asked the captain
+who bought him, "What! do you buy me, who am a great trader?" the only
+answer was, "Yes, I will buy you, or her, or anybody else, provided any
+one will sell you;" and accordingly both the trader and the girl were
+carried to the West Indies, and sold for slaves.
+
+The third mode of obtaining slaves was by crimes committed or imputed.
+One of these was adultery. But was Africa the place, where Englishmen,
+above all others, were to go to find out and punish adultery? Did it
+become us to cast the first stone? It was a most extraordinary
+pilgrimage for a most extraordinary purpose! And yet upon this plea we
+justified our right of carrying off its inhabitants. The offence alleged
+next was witchcraft. What a reproach it was to lend ourselves to this
+superstition!--Yes: we stood by; we heard the trial; we knew the crime
+to be impossible; and that the accused must be innocent: but we waited
+in patient silence for his condemnation; and then we lent our friendly
+aid to the police of the country, by buying the wretched convict, with
+all his family; whom, for the benefit of Africa, we carried away also
+into perpetual slavery.
+
+With respect to the situation of the slaves in their transportation, he
+knew not how to give the House a more correct idea of the horrors of it,
+than by referring them to the printed section of the slave-ship; where
+the eye might see what the tongue must fall short in describing. On this
+dismal part of the subject he would not dwell. He would only observe,
+that the acts of barbarity, related of the slave-captains in these
+voyages, were so extravagant, that they had been attributed in some
+instances to insanity. But was not this the insanity of arbitrary power?
+Who ever read the facts recorded of Nero without suspecting he was mad?
+Who would not be apt to impute insanity to Caligula--or Domitian--or
+Caracalla--or Commodus--or Heliogabalus? Here were six Roman emperors,
+not connected in blood, nor by descent, who, each of them, possessing
+arbitrary power, had been so distinguished for cruelty, that nothing
+short of insanity could be imputed to them. Was not the insanity of the
+masters of slave-ships to be accounted for on the same principles?
+
+Of the slaves in the West Indies it had been said, that they were taken
+from a worse state to a better. An honourable member, Mr. W. Smith, had
+quoted some instances out of the evidence to the contrary. He also would
+quote one or two others. A slave under hard usage had run away. To
+prevent a repetition of the offence his owner sent for his surgeon, and
+desired him to cut off the man's leg. The surgeon refused. The owner, to
+render it a matter of duty in the surgeon, broke it. "Now," says he,
+"you must cut it off; or the man will die." We might console ourselves,
+perhaps, that this happened in a French island; but he would select
+another instance, which had happened in one of our own. Mr. Ross heard
+the shrieks of a female issuing from an out-house; and so piercing, that
+he determined to me what was going on. On looking in he perceived a
+young female tied up to a beam by her wrists, entirely naked, and in the
+act of involuntary writhing and swinging; while the author of her
+torture was standing below her with a lighted torch in his hand, which
+he applied to all the parts of her body as it approached him. What crime
+this miserable woman had perpetrated he knew not; but the human mind
+could not conceive a crime warranting such a punishment.
+
+He was glad to see that these tales affected the House. Would they then
+sanction enormities, the bare recital of which made them shudder? Let
+them remember that humanity did not consist in a squeamish ear. It did
+not consist in shrinking and starting at such tales as these; but in a
+disposition of the heart to remedy the evils they unfolded. Humanity
+belonged rather to the mind than to the nerves. But, if so, it should
+prompt men to charitable exertion. Such exertion was necessary in the
+present case. It was necessary for the credit of our jurisprudence at
+home, and our character abroad. For what would any man think of our
+justice, who should see another hanged for a crime, which would be
+innocence itself, if compared with those enormities, which were allowed
+in Africa and the West Indies under the sanction of the British
+parliament?
+
+It had been said, however, in justification of the trade, that the
+Africans were less happy at home than in the Islands. But what right had
+we to be judges of their condition? They would tell us a very different
+tale, if they were asked. But it was ridiculous to say, that we bettered
+their condition, when we dragged them from everything dear in life to
+the most abject state of slavery.
+
+One argument had been used, which for a subject so grave was the most
+ridiculous he had ever heard. Mr. Alderman Watson had declared the Slave
+Trade to be necessary on account of its connexion with our fisheries.
+But what was this but an acknowledgment of the manner, in which these
+miserable beings, were treated? The trade was to be kept up, with all
+its enormities, in order that there might be persons to consume the
+refuse fish from Newfoundland, which was too bad for anybody else to
+eat.
+
+It had been said that England ought not to abolish the Slave Trade,
+unless other nations would also give it up. But what kind of morality
+was this? The Trade was defensible upon no other principle than that of
+a highwayman. Great Britain could not keep it upon these terms. Mere
+gain was not a motive for a great country to rest on, as a justification
+of any measure. Honour was its superior; and justice was superior to
+honour.
+
+With regard to the emancipation of those in slavery, he coincided with
+Mr. Wilberforce and Mr. Pitt; and upon this principle, that it might be
+as dangerous to give freedom at once to a man used to slavery, as, in
+the case of a man who had never seen day-light, to expose him all at
+once to the full glare of a meridian sun.
+
+With respect to the intellect and sensibility of the Africans, it was
+pride only, which suggested a difference between them and ourselves.
+There was a remarkable instance to the point in the evidence, and which
+he would quote. In one of the slave-ships was a person of consequence; a
+man, once high in a military station, and with a mind not insensible to
+the eminence of his rank. He had been taken captive and sold; and was
+then in the hold, confined promiscuously with the rest. Happening in the
+night to fall asleep, he dreamed that he was in his own country; high in
+honour and command; caressed by his family and friends; waited on by his
+domestics; and surrounded with all his former comforts in life. But
+awaking suddenly, and finding where he was, he was heard to burst into
+the loudest groans and lamentations on the miserable contrast of his
+present state; mixed with the meanest of his subjects; and subjected to
+the insolence of wretches a thousand times lower than himself in every
+kind of endowment. He appealed to the House, whether this was not as
+moving a picture of the miserable effects of the Slave Trade, as could
+be well imagined. There was one way, by which they might judge of it.
+Let them make the case their own. This was the Christian rule of
+judging; and, having mentioned Christianity, he was sorry to find that
+any should suppose, that it had given countenance to such a system of
+oppression. So far was this from being the case, that he thought it one
+of the most splendid triumphs of this religion, that it had caused
+slavery to be so generally abolished on its appearance in the world. It
+had done this by teaching us, among other beautiful precepts, that, in
+the sight of their Maker, all mankind were equal. Its influence appeared
+to have been more powerful in this respect than that of all the ancient
+systems of philosophy; though even in these, in point of theory, we
+might trace great liberality and consideration for human rights. Where
+could be found finer sentiments of liberty than in Demosthenes and
+Cicero? Where bolder assertions of the rights of mankind, than in
+Tacitus and Thucydides? But, alas! these were the holders of slaves: It
+was not so with those who had been converted to Christianity. He knew,
+however, that what he had been ascribing to Christianity had been
+imputed by others to the advances which philosophy had made. Each of the
+two parties took the merit to itself. The philosopher gave it to
+philosophy, and the divine to religion. He should not, then, dispute
+with either of them; but, as both coveted the praise, why should they
+not emulate each other by promoting this improvement in the condition of
+the human race?
+
+He would now conclude by declaring, that the whole country, indeed the
+whole civilized world, must rejoice that such a bill as the present had
+been moved for, not merely as a matter of humanity, but as an act of
+justice; for he would put humanity out of the case. Could it be called
+humanity to forbear committing murder? Exactly upon this ground did the
+motion stand; being strictly a question of national justice. He thanked
+Mr. Wilberforce for having pledged himself so strongly to pursue his
+object till it was accomplished; and, as for himself, he declared, that,
+in whatever situation he might ever be, he would use his warmest efforts
+for the promotion of this righteous cause.
+
+Mr. Stanley (the member for Lancashire) rose, and declared that, when he
+came into the house, he intended to vote against the abolition; but that
+the impression made both on his feelings and on his understanding was
+such, that he could not persist in his resolution. He was now convinced
+that the entire abolition of the Slave Trade was called for equally by
+sound policy and justice. He thought it right and fair to avow manfully
+this change in his opinion. The abolition, ho was sure, could not long
+fail of being carried. The arguments for it were irresistible.
+
+The Honourable Mr. Ryder said that he came to the house not exactly in
+the same circumstances as Mr. Stanley, but very undecided on the
+subject. He was, however, so strongly convinced by the arguments he had
+heard, that he was become equally earnest for the abolition.
+
+Mr. Smith (member for Pontefract) said, that he should not trouble the
+House, at so late an hour, further than to enter his protest, in the
+most solemn manner, against this trade, which he considered as most
+disgraceful to the country, and contrary to all the principles of
+justice and religion.
+
+Mr. Sumner declared himself against the total, immediate, and
+unqualified abolition, which he thought would wound at least the
+prejudices of the West Indians, and might do mischief; but a gradual
+abolition should have his hearty support.
+
+Major Scott declared there was no member in the house, who would give a
+more independent vote upon this question than himself. He had no concern
+either in the African or West Indian trades; but in the present state of
+the finances of the country, he thought it would be a dangerous
+experiment to risk any one branch of our foreign commerce. As far as
+regulation would go, he would join in the measure.
+
+Mr. Burke said he would use but few words. He declared that he had for a
+long time had his mind drawn towards this great subject. He had even
+prepared a bill for the regulation of the trade, conceiving at that time
+that the immediate abolition of it was a thing hardly to be hoped for;
+but when he found that Mr. Wilberforce had seriously undertaken the
+work, and that his motion was for the abolition, which he approved much
+more than his own, he had burnt his papers; and made an offering of them
+in honour of this nobler proposition, much in the same manner as we
+read, that the curious books were offered up and burnt at the approach
+of the Gospel. He highly applauded the confessions of Mr. Stanley and
+Mr. Ryder. It would be a glorious tale for them to tell their
+constituents, that it was impossible for them, however prejudiced, if
+sent to hear, discussion in that House, to avoid surrendering up their
+hearts and judgments at the shrine of reason.
+
+Mr. Drake said, that he would oppose the abolition to the utmost. We
+had, by a want of prudent conduct, lost America. The House should be
+aware of being carried away by the meteors with which they had been
+dazzled. The leaders, it was true, were for the abolition; but the minor
+orators, the dwarfs, the pigmies, he trusted, would that night carry the
+question against them. The property of the West Indians was at stake;
+and, though men might be generous with their own property, they should
+not be so with the property of others.
+
+Lord Sheffield reprobated the overbearing language which had been used
+by some gentlemen towards others, who differed in opinion from them on a
+subject of so much difficulty as the present. He protested against a
+debate, in which he could trace nothing like reason; but, on the
+contrary, downright phrensy, raised perhaps by the most extraordinary
+eloquence. The abolition, as proposed, was impracticable. He denied the
+right of the legislature to pass a law for it. He warned the Chancellor
+of the Exchequer to beware of the day, on which the bill should pass, as
+the worst he had ever seen.
+
+Mr. Milnes declared, that he adopted all those expressions against the
+Slave Trade, which had been thought so harsh; and that the opinion of
+the noble lord had been turned in consequence of having become one of
+the members for Bristol. He quoted a passage from Lord Sheffield's
+pamphlet; and insisted that the separation of families in the West
+Indies, there complained of by himself, ought to have compelled him to
+take the contrary side of the question.
+
+Mr. Wilberforce made a short reply to some arguments in the course of
+the debate; after which, at half-past three in the morning, the House
+divided. There appeared for Mr. Wilberforce's motion eighty-eight, and
+against it one hundred and sixty-three; so that it was lost by a
+majority of seventy-five votes.
+
+By this unfavourable division the great contest, in which we had been so
+long engaged, was decided. We were obliged to give way to superior
+numbers. Our fall, however, grievous as it was, was rendered more
+tolerable by the circumstance of having been prepared to expect it. It
+was rendered more tolerable, also, by other considerations; for we had
+the pleasure of knowing, that we had several of the most distinguished
+characters in the kingdom, and almost all the splendid talents of the
+House of Commons[A], in our favour. We knew, too, that the question had
+not been carried against us either by evidence or by argument; but that
+we were the victims of the accidents and circumstances of the times. And
+as these considerations comforted us, when we looked forward to future
+operations on this great question, so we found great consolation as to
+the past, in believing, that, unless human constitutions were stronger
+than they really were, we could not have done more than we had done
+towards the furtherance of the cause.
+
+[Footnote A: It is a pity that no perfect list was ever made of this or
+of any other division in the House of Commons on this subject. I can
+give, however, the names of the following, members, as having voted for
+Mr.  Wilberforce's motion at this time.
+
+Mr. Pitt,           Lord Bayham,           Mr. Duncombe,
+Mr. Fox,            Lord Arden,            Mr. Martin,
+Mr. Burke,          Lord Carysfort,        Mr. Milnes,
+Mr. Grey,           Lord Muncaster,        Mr. Steele,
+Mr. Windham,        Lord Barnard,          Mr. Coke,
+Mr. Sheridan,       Lord North,            Mr. Eliott,
+Mr. Whitbread,      Lord Euston,           Mr. Montagu,
+Mr. Courtenay,      General Burgoyne,      Mr. Bastard,
+Mr. Francis,        Hon. R. Fitzpatrick,   Mr. Stanley,
+Mr. Wilberforce,    Sir William Dolben,    Mr. Plumer,
+Mr. Ryder,          Sir Henry Houghton,    Mr. Beaufoy,
+Mr. William Smith,  Sir Edward Lyttleton,  Mr. I.H. Browne,
+Mr. John Smyth,     Sir William Scott,     Mr. G.N. Edwards,
+Mr. Robert Smith,   Mr. Samuel Thornton,   Mr. W.M. Pitt,
+Mr. Powys,          Mr. Henry Thornton,    Mr. Bankes,
+Lord Apsley,        Mr. Robert Thornton,
+
+]
+
+The committee for the abolition held a meeting soon after this our
+defeat. It was the most impressive I ever attended. The looks of all
+bespoke the feelings of their hearts. Little was said previously to the
+opening of the business; and, after it was opened, it was conducted with
+a kind of solemn dignity, which became the occasion. The committee, in
+the course of its deliberations, came to the following resolutions:--
+
+That the thanks of this committee be respectfully given to the
+illustrious minority of the House of Commons, who lately stood forth the
+assertors of British justice and humanity, and the enemies of a traffic
+in the blood of man.
+
+That our acknowledgments are particularly due to William Wilberforce,
+Esq., for his unwearied exertions to remove this opprobrium of our
+national character; and to the right honourable William Pitt, and the
+right honourable Charles James Fox, for their virtuous and dignified
+co-operation in the same cause.
+
+That the solemn declarations of these gentlemen, and of Matthew Montagu
+and William Smith, Esqrs., that they will not relinquish, but with life,
+their struggle for the abolition of the Slave Trade, are not only highly
+honourable to themselves as Britons, as statesmen, and as Christians,
+but must eventually, as the light of evidence shall be more and more
+diffused, be seconded by the good wishes of every man not immediately
+interested in the continuance of that detestable commerce.
+
+And lastly, that anticipating the opposition they should have to sustain
+from persons trained to a familiarity with the rapine and desolation
+necessarily attendant on the Slave Trade, and sensible, also, of the
+prejudices which implicitly arise from long-established usages, this
+committee consider the late decision in the House of Commons as a delay,
+rather than a defeat. In addressing a free and enlightened nation on a
+subject, in which its justice, its humanity, and its wisdom are
+involved, they cannot despair of final success; and they do hereby,
+under an increasing conviction of the excellence of their cause, and in
+conformity to the distinguished examples before them, renew their firm
+protestation, that they will never desist from appealing to their
+countrymen, till the commercial intercourse with Africa shall cease to
+be polluted with the blood of its inhabitants.
+
+These resolutions were published, and they were followed by a suitable
+report.
+
+The committee, in order to strengthen themselves for the prosecution of
+their great work, elected Sir William Dolben, Bart., Henry Thornton,
+Lewis Alexander Grant, and Matthew Montagu, Esqrs., who were members of
+parliament, and Truman Harford, Josiah Wedgewood, jun., Esq., and John
+Clarkson, Esq., of the royal navy, as members of their own body; and
+they elected the Rev. Archdeacon Plymley (afterwards Corbett) an
+honorary and corresponding member, in consequence of the great services
+which he had rendered their cause in the shires of Hereford and Salop,
+and the adjacent counties of Wales.
+
+The several committees, established in the country, on receiving the
+resolutions and report as before mentioned, testified their sympathy in
+letters of condolence to that of London on the late melancholy occasion;
+and expressed their determination to support it as long as any vestiges
+of this barbarous traffic should remain.
+
+At length the session ended; and though, in the course of it, the
+afflicting loss of the general question had occurred, there was yet an
+attempt made by the abolitionists in parliament, which met with a better
+fate. The Sierra Leone Company received the sanction of the Legislature.
+The object of this institution was to colonize a small portion of the
+coast of Africa. They, who were to settle there, were to have no concern
+in the Slave Trade, but to discourage it as much as possible. They were
+to endeavour to establish a new species of commerce, and to promote
+cultivation in its neighborhood by free labour. The persons more
+generally fixed upon for colonists, were such Negroes, with their wives
+and families, as chose to abandon their habitations in Nova Scotia.
+These had followed the British arms in America; and had been settled
+there, as a reward for their services, by the British government. My
+brother, just mentioned to have been chosen a member of the committee,
+and who had essentially served the great cause of the abolition on many
+occasions, undertook a visit to Nova Scotia, to see if those in question
+were willing to undergo the change; and in that case to provide
+transports, and conduct them to Sierra Leone. This object he
+accomplished. He embarked more than eleven hundred persons in fifteen
+vessels, of all which he took the command. On landing them he became the
+first Governor of the new colony. Having laid the foundation of it, he
+returned to England; when a successor was appointed. From that time many
+unexpected circumstances, but particularly devastations by the French in
+the beginning of the war, took place, which contributed to ruin the
+trading company which was attached to it. It is pleasing, however, to
+reflect, that though the object of the institution, as far as mercantile
+profit was concerned, thus failed, the other objects belonging to it
+were promoted. Schools, places of worship, agriculture, and the habits
+of civilized life were established. Sierra Leone, therefore, now
+presents itself as the medium of civilization for Africa. And, in this
+latter point of view, it is worth all the treasure which has been lost
+in supporting it; for the Slave Trade, which was the great obstacle to
+this civilization, being now happily abolished, there is a metropolis,
+consisting of some hundreds of persons, from which may issue the seeds
+of reformation to this injured continent; and which, when sown, may be
+expected to grow into fruit without interruption. New schools may be
+transplanted from thence into the interior. Teachers, and travellers on
+discovery, may be sent from thence in various directions, who may return
+to it occasionally as to their homes. The natives, too, able now to
+travel in safety, may resort to it from various parts. They may see the
+improvements which are going on from time to time. They may send their
+children to it for education; and thus it may become the medium[A] of a
+great intercourse between England and Africa, to the benefit of each
+other.
+
+[Footnote A: To promote this desirable end an association took place
+last year, called The African Institution, under the patronage of the
+Duke of Gloucester, as president, and of the Mends to the African cause,
+particularly of such as were in parliament, and as belonged to the
+committee for the abolition of the Slave Trade.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+--Continuation from July 1791 to July 1792.--Author travels round the
+kingdom again; object of his journey.--People begin to leave off the
+use of sugar; to form committees; and to send petitions to
+Parliament.--Motion made in the House of Commons for the immediate
+abolition of the trade; Debates upon it; Abolition resolved upon, but
+not to commence till 1796.--Resolution taken to the Lords; latter
+determine upon hearing evidence; Evidence at length introduced;
+further hearing of it postponed to the next session.
+
+
+The defeat which we had just sustained, was a matter of great triumph to
+our opponents. When they considered the majority in the House of Commons
+in their favour, they viewed the resolutions of the committee, which
+have been detailed, as the last spiteful effort of a vanquished and
+dying animal, and they supposed that they had consigned the question to
+eternal sleep. The committee, however, were too deeply attached to the
+cause, vanquished as they were, to desert it; and they knew, also, too
+well the barometer of public feeling, and the occasion of its
+fluctuations, to despair. In the year 1787, the members of the House of
+Commons, as well as the people, were enthusiastic in behalf of the
+abolition of the trade. In the year 1788, the fair enthusiasm of the
+former began to fade. In 1789, it died. In 1790, prejudice started up as
+a noxious weed in its place. In 1791, this prejudice arrived at its
+growth. But to what were these changes owing? To delay; during which the
+mind, having been gradually led to the question as a commercial, had
+been gradually taken from it as a moral object. But it was possible to
+restore the mind to its proper place. Add to which, that the nation had
+never deserted the cause during this whole period.
+
+It is much to the honour of the English people, that they should have
+continued to feel for the existence of an evil which was so far removed
+from their sight. But at this moment their feelings began to be
+insupportable. Many of them resolved, as soon as parliament had rejected
+the bill, to abstain from the use of West Indian produce. In this state
+of things, a pamphlet, written by William Bell Crafton, of Tewksbury,
+and called _A Sketch of the Evidence, with a Recommendation on the
+Subject to the serious Attention of People in general_, made its
+appearance; and another followed it, written by William Fox, of London,
+_On the Propriety of abstaining from West India Sugar and Rum_. These
+pamphlets took the same ground. They inculcated abstinence from these
+articles as a moral duty; they inculcated it as a peaceable and
+constitutional measure; and they laid before the reader a truth which
+was sufficiently obvious, that, if each would abstain, the people would
+have a complete remedy for this enormous evil in their own power.
+
+While these things were going on, it devolved upon me to arrange all the
+evidence on the part of the abolition under proper heads, and to abridge
+it into one volume. It was intended that a copy of this should be sent
+into different towns of the kingdom, that all might know, if possible,
+the horrors (as far as the evidence contained them) of this execrable
+trade; and as it was possible that these copies might lie in the places
+where they were sent, without a due attention to their contents, I
+resolved, with the approbation of the committee, to take a journey, and
+for no other purpose than personally to recommend that they might be
+read.
+
+The books, having been printed, were despatched before me. Of this tour
+I shall give the reader no other account than that of the progress of
+the remedy, which the people were then taking into their own hands. And
+first I may observe, that there was no town, through which I passed, in
+which there was not some one individual who had left off the use of
+sugar. In the smaller towns there were from ten to fifty by estimation,
+and in the larger from two to five hundred, who made this sacrifice to
+virtue. These were of all ranks and parties. Rich and poor, churchmen
+and dissenters, had adopted the measure. Even grocers had left off
+trading in the article, in some places. In gentlemen's families, where
+the master had set the example, the servants had often voluntarily
+followed it; and even children, who were capable of understanding the
+history of the sufferings of the Africans, excluded, with the most
+virtuous resolution, the sweets, to which they had been accustomed, from
+their lips. By the best computation I was able to make from notes taken
+down in my journey, no fewer than three hundred thousand persons had
+abandoned the use of sugar.
+
+Having travelled over Wales, and two-thirds of England, I found it would
+be impossible to visit Scotland on the same errand. I had already, by
+moving upwards and downwards in parallel lines, and by intersecting
+these in the same manner, passed over six thousand miles. By the best
+calculation I could make, I had yet two thousand to perform. By means of
+almost incessant journeyings night and day, I had suffered much in my
+health. My strength was failing daily. I wrote, therefore, to the
+committee on this subject; and they communicated immediately with Dr.
+Dickson, who, on being applied to, visited Scotland in my stead. He
+consulted first with the committee at Edinburgh relative to the
+circulation of the Abridgment of the Evidence. He then pursued his
+journey, and, in conjunction with the unwearied efforts of Mr. Campbel
+Haliburton, rendered essential service to the cause for this part of the
+kingdom.
+
+On my return to London, I found that the committee had taken into their
+own body T.F. Forster, B.M. Forster, and James West, Esqrs., as members;
+and that they had elected Hercules Boss, Esq., an honorary and
+corresponding member, in consequence of the handsome manner in which he
+had come forward as an evidence, and of the peculiar benefit which had
+resulted from his testimony to the cause.
+
+The effects of the two journeys by Dr. Dickson and myself were soon
+visible. The people could not bear the facts, which had been disclosed
+to them by the Abridgment of the Evidence. They were not satisfied, many
+of them, with the mere abstinence from sugar; but began to form
+committees to correspond with that of London. The first of these
+appeared at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, so early as the month of October. It
+consisted of the Rev. William Turner, as chairman, and of Robert
+Ormston, William Batson, Henry, Taylor, Ralph Bambridge, George Brown,
+Hadwen Bragg, David Sutton, Anthony Clapham, George Richardson, and
+Edward Prowit. It received a valuable addition afterwards by the
+admission of many others. The second was established at Nottingham. The
+Rev. Jeremiah Bigsby became the president, and the Revs. G. Walker and
+J. Smith, and Messrs. Dennison, Evans, Watson, Hart, Storer, Bott,
+Hawkesley, Pennington, Wright, Frith, Hall, and Wakefield, the
+committee. The third was formed at Glasgow, under the patronage of David
+Dale, Scott Montcrieff, Robert Graham, Professor Millar, and others.
+Other committees started up in their turn. At length public meetings
+began to take place, and after this petitions to be sent to parliament;
+and these so generally, that there was not a day for three months,
+Sundays excepted, in which five or six were not resolved upon in some
+places or other in the kingdom.
+
+Of the enthusiasm of the nation at this time none can form an opinion
+but they who witnessed it. There never was perhaps a season when so much
+virtuous feeling pervaded all ranks. Great pains were taken by
+interested persons in many places to prevent public meetings. But no
+efforts could avail. The current ran with such strength and rapidity,
+that it was impossible to stem it. In the city of London a remarkable
+instance occurred. The livery had been long waiting for the common
+council to begin a petition; but the lord mayor and several of the
+aldermen stifled it. The former, indignant at this conduct, insisted
+upon a common hall. A day was appointed; and, though the notice given of
+it was short, the assemblage was greater than had ever been remembered
+on any former occasion. Scarcely a liveryman was absent, unless sick, or
+previously engaged. The petition, when introduced, was opposed by those
+who had prevented it in the common council. But their voices were
+drowned amidst groans and hissings. It was shortly after carried; and it
+had not been signed more than half an hour, before it was within the
+walls of the House of Commons. The reason of this extraordinary despatch
+was, that it had been kept back by intrigue so late, that the very hour
+in which it was delivered to the House, was that in which Mr.
+Wilberforce was to make his new motion.
+
+And as no petitions were ever more respectable than those presented on
+this occasion, as far as they breathed the voice of the people, and as
+far as they were founded on a knowledge of the object which they
+solicited, so none were ever more numerous, as far as we have any record
+of such transactions. Not fewer than three hundred and ten were
+presented from England; one hundred and eighty-seven from Scotland; and
+twenty from Wales. Two other petitions also for the abolition came from
+England, but they were too late for delivery. On the other side of the
+question, one was presented from the town of Reading for regulation, in
+opposition to that for abolition from the same place. There were also
+four against abolition. The first of these was from certain persons at
+Derby, in opposition to the other from that town. The second was from
+Stephen Fuller, Esq., as agent for Jamaica. The third from J. Dawson,
+Esq., a slave-merchant at Liverpool. And the fourth from the merchants,
+planters, mortgagees, annuitants, and others concerned in the West
+Indian colonies. Taking in all these statements, the account stood
+thus:--for regulation there was one; against all abolition there were
+four; and for the total abolition of the trade five hundred and
+nineteen.
+
+On the 2nd of April Mr. Wilberforce moved the order of the day; which
+having been agreed to, Sir William Dolben was put into the chair.
+
+He then began by soliciting the candid attention of the West Indians to
+what he was going to deliver to the House. However others might have
+censured them indiscriminately, he had always himself made a distinction
+between them and their system. It was the latter only which he
+reprobated. If aristocracy had been thought a worse form of government
+than monarchy, because the people had many tyrants instead of one, how
+objectionable must be that form of it, which existed in our colonies!
+Arbitrary power could be bought there by any one, who could buy a slave.
+The fierceness of it was doubtless restrained by an elevation of mind in
+many, as arising from a consciousness of superior rank and consequence:
+but, alas! it was too often exercised there by the base and vulgar. The
+more liberal, too, of the planters were not resident upon their estates.
+Hence a promiscuous censure of them would be unjust, though their system
+would undoubtedly be odious.
+
+As for the cure of this monstrous evil, he had shown, last year, that
+internal regulations would not produce it. These could have no effect,
+while the evidence of slaves was inadmissible. What would be the
+situation of the bulk of the people of this country, if only gentlemen
+of five hundred a-year were admitted as evidences in our courts of law?
+Neither was the cure of it in the emancipation of the slaves. He did not
+deny that he wished them this latter blessing. But, alas, in their
+present degraded state, they were unfit for it! Liberty was the child of
+reason and order. It was, indeed, a plant of celestial growth, but the
+soil must be prepared for its reception. He, who would see it flourish
+and bring forth its proper fruit, must not think it sufficient to let it
+shoot in unrestrained licentiousness. But if this inestimable blessing
+was ever to be imparted to them, the cause must be removed, which
+obstructed its introduction. In short, no effectual remedy could be
+found but in the abolition of the Slave Trade.
+
+He then took a copious view of the advantages, which would arise both to
+the master and to the slave, if this traffic were done away; and having
+recapitulated and answered the different objections to such a measure,
+he went to that part of the subject, in which he described himself to be
+most interested.
+
+He had shown, he said, last year, that Africa was exposed to all the
+horrors of war; and that most of these wars had their origin in the
+Slave Trade. It was then said, in reply, that the natural barbarity of
+the natives was alone sufficient to render their country a scene of
+carnage. This was triumphantly instanced in the King of Dahomey. But his
+honourable friend Lord Muncaster, then in the House, had proved in his
+interesting publication, which had appeared since, called _Historical
+Sketches of the Slave Trade, and of its Effects in Africa_, addressed to
+the people of Great Britain, that the very cruelties of this king, on
+which so much stress had been laid, were committed by him in a war,
+which had been undertaken expressly to punish an adjacent people for
+having stolen some of his subjects and sold them for slaves.
+
+He had shown, also, last year, that kings were induced to seize and sell
+their subjects, and individuals each other, in consequence of the
+existence of the Slave Trade.
+
+He had shown, also, that the administration of justice was perverted, so
+as to become a fertile source of supply to this inhuman traffic; that
+every crime was punished by slavery; that false accusations were made to
+procure convicts; and that even the judges had a profit on the
+convictions.
+
+He had shown again, that many acts of violence were perpetrated by the
+Europeans themselves. But he would now relate others which had happened
+since. The captain of an English vessel, lying in the river Cameroons,
+sent his boat with three sailors and a slave to get water. A Black
+trader seized the latter, and took him away. He alleged in his defence,
+that the captain owed him goods to a greater amount than the value of
+the slave; and that he would not pay him. This being told on board, the
+captain, and a part of his crew, who were compelled to blacken their
+naked bodies that they might appear like the natives, went on shore at
+midnight, armed with muskets and cutlasses. They fired on the trader's
+dwelling, and killed three of his children on the spot. The trader,
+being badly wounded, died while they were dragging him to the boat; and
+his wife, being wounded also, died in half an hour after she was on
+board the ship. Resistance having been made to these violent
+proceedings, some of the sailors were wounded, and one was killed.
+
+Some weeks after this affray, a chieftain of the name of Quarmo went on
+board the same vessel to borrow some cutlasses and muskets. He was
+going, he said, into the country to make war; and the captain should
+have half of his booty. So well understood were the practices of the
+trade, that his request was granted. Quarmo, however, and his
+associates, finding things favourable to their design, suddenly seized
+the captain, threw him overboard, hauled him into their canoe, and
+dragged him to the shore; where another party of the natives, lying in
+ambush, seized such of the crew as were absent from the ship. But how
+did these savages behave, when they had these different persons in their
+power? Did they not instantly retaliate by murdering them all? No--they
+only obliged the captain to give an order on the vessel to pay his
+debts. This fact came out only two: months ago in a trial in the Court
+of Common Pleas--not in trial for piracy and murder, but in the trial of
+a civil suit, instituted by some of the poor sailors, to whom the owners
+refused their wages, because the natives, on account of the villainous
+conduct of their captain, had kept them from their vessel by detaining
+them as prisoners on shore. This instance, he said, proved the dreadful
+nature of the Slave Trade, its cruelty, its perfidy, and its effect on
+the Africans as well as on the Europeans, who carried it on. The cool
+manner in which the transaction was conducted on both sides, showed that
+these practices were not novel. It showed also the manner of doing
+business in the trade. It must be remembered, too, that these
+transactions were carrying on at the very time when the inquiry
+concerning this trade was going forward in Parliament, and whilst the
+witnesses of his opponents were strenuously denying not only the actual,
+but the possible, existence of any such depredations.
+
+But another instance happened only in August last. Six British ships,
+the Thomas, Captain Philips; the Wasp, Captain Hutchinson; the Recovery,
+Captain Kimber, of Bristol; the Martha, Captain Houston; the Betsey,
+Captain Doyle; and the Amachree, (he believed,) Captain Lee, of
+Liverpool; were anchored off the town of Calabar. This place was the
+scene of a dreadful massacre about twenty years before. The captains of
+these vessels, thinking that the natives asked too much for their
+slaves, held a consultation, how they should proceed; and agreed to fire
+upon the town unless their own terms were complied with. On a certain
+evening they notified their determination to the traders; and told them,
+that, if they continued obstinate, they would put it into execution the
+next morning. In this they kept their word. They brought sixty-six guns
+to bear upon the town; and fired on it for three hours. Not a shot was
+returned. A canoe then went to offer terms of accommodation. The parties
+however not agreeing, the firing recommenced; more damage was done; and
+the natives were forced into submission. There were no certain accounts
+of their loss. Report said that fifty were killed; but some were seen
+lying badly wounded, and others in the agonies of death by those who
+went afterwards on shore.
+
+He would now say a few words relative to the Middle Passage, principally
+to show, that regulation could not effect a cure of the evil there. Mr.
+Isaac Wilson had stated in his evidence, that the ship, in which he
+sailed, only three years ago, was of three hundred and seventy tons; and
+that she carried six hundred and two slaves. Of these she lost one
+hundred and fifty-five. There were three or four other vessels in
+company with her, and which belonged to the same owners. One of these
+carried four hundred and fifty, and buried two hundred; another carried
+four hundred and sixty-six, and buried seventy-three; another five
+hundred and forty-six, and burled one hundred and fifty-eight; and from
+the four together, after the landing of their cargoes, two hundred and
+twenty died. He fell in with another vessel, which had lost three
+hundred and sixty-two; but the number, which had been bought, was not
+specified. Now if to these actual deaths, during and immediately after
+the voyage, we were to add the subsequent loss in the seasoning, and to
+consider that this would be greater than ordinary in cargoes which were
+landed in such a sickly state, we should find a mortality, which, if it
+were only general for a few months, would entirely depopulate the globe.
+
+But he would advert to what Mr. Wilson said, when examined, as a
+surgeon, as to the causes of these losses, and particularly on board his
+own ship, where he had the means of ascertaining them. The substance of
+his reply was this--That most of the slaves laboured under a fixed
+melancholy, which now and then broke out into lamentations and plaintive
+songs, expressive of the loss of their relations, friends, and country.
+So powerfully did this sorrow operate, that many of them attempted in
+various ways to destroy themselves, and three actually effected it.
+Others obstinately refused to take sustenance; and when the whip and
+other violent means were used to compel them to eat, they looked up in
+the face of the officer, who unwillingly executed this painful task, and
+said, with a smile, in their own language, "Presently we shall be no
+more." This, their unhappy state of mind, produced a general languor and
+debility, which were increased in many instances by an unconquerable
+aversion to food, arising partly from sickness, and partly, to use the
+language of the slave-captains, from sulkiness. These causes naturally
+produced the flux. The contagion spread; several were carried off daily;
+and the disorder, aided by so many powerful auxiliaries, resisted the
+power of medicine. And it is worth while to remark, that these grievous
+sufferings were not owing either to want of care on the part of the
+owners, or to any negligence or harshness of the captain; for Mr. Wilson
+declared, that his ship was as well fitted out, and the crew and slaves
+as well treated, as anybody could reasonably expect.
+
+He would now go to another ship. That, in which Mr. Claxton sailed as a
+surgeon, afforded a repetition of all the horrid circumstances which had
+been described. Suicide was attempted, and effected; and the same
+barbarous expedients were adopted to compel the slaves to continue an
+existence, which they considered as too painful to be endured. The
+mortality, also, was as great. And yet here, again, the captain was in
+no wise to blame. But this vessel had sailed since the regulating act.
+Nay, even in the last year, the deaths on shipboard would be found to
+have been between ten and eleven per cent, on the whole number exported.
+In truth, the House could not reach the cause of this mortality by all
+their regulations. Until they could cure a broken heart--until they
+could legislate for the affections, and bind by their statutes the
+passions and feelings of the mind, their labour would be in vain.
+
+Such were the evils of the Passage. But evils were conspicuous
+everywhere in this trade. Never was there, indeed, a system so replete
+with wickedness and cruelty. To whatever part of it we turned our eyes,
+whether to Africa, the Middle Passage, or the West Indies, we could find
+no comfort, no satisfaction, no relief. It was the gracious ordinance of
+Providence, both in the natural and moral world, that good should often
+arise out of evil. Hurricanes cleared the air; and the propagation of
+truth was promoted by persecution, Pride, vanity, and profusion
+contributed often; in their remoter consequences, to the happiness of
+mankind. In common, what was in itself evil and vicious, was permitted
+to carry along with it some circumstances of palliation. The Arab was
+hospitable; the robber brave. We did not necessarily find cruelty
+associated with fraud, or meanness with injustice. But here the case was
+far otherwise. It was the prerogative of this detested traffic to
+separate from evil its concomitant good, and to reconcile discordant
+mischiefs. It robbed war of its generosity; it deprived peace of its
+security: we saw in it the vices of polished society, without its
+knowledge or its comforts; and the evils of barbarism without its
+simplicity. No age, no sex, no rank, no condition, was exempt from the
+fatal influence of this wide-wasting calamity. Thus it attained to the
+fullest measure of pure, unmixed, unsophisticated wickedness; and,
+scorning all competition and comparison, it stood without a rival in the
+secure, undisputed, possession of its detestable preeminence.
+
+But, after all this, wonderful to relate, this execrable traffic had
+been defended on the ground of benevolence! It had been said, that the
+slaves were captives and convicts, who, if we were not to carry them
+away, would be sacrificed, and many of them at the funerals of people of
+rank, according to the savage custom of Africa. He had shown, however,
+that our supplies of slaves were obtained from other quarters than
+these. But he would wave this consideration for the present. Had it not
+been acknowledged by his opponents that the custom of ransoming slaves
+prevailed in Africa? With respect to human sacrifices, he did not deny
+that there might have been some instances of these; but they had not
+been proved to be more frequent than amongst other barbarous nations;
+and, where they existed, being acts of religion, they would not be
+dispensed with for the sake of commercial gain. In fact, they had
+nothing to do with the Slave Trade; only perhaps, if it were abolished,
+they might, by means of the civilization which would follow, be done
+away.
+
+But, exclusively of these sacrifices, it had been asserted, that it was
+kindness to the inhabitants to take them away from their own country.
+But what said the historians of Africa, long before the question of the
+abolition was started? "Axim," says Bosman, "is cultivated, and abounds
+with numerous large and beautiful villages: its inhabitants are
+industriously employed in trade, fishing, or agriculture."--"The
+inhabitants of Adom always expose large quantities of corn to sale,
+besides what they want for their own use."--"The people of Acron husband
+their grounds and time so well, that every year produces a plentiful
+harvest." Speaking of the Fetu country, he says,--"Frequently, when
+walking through it, I have seen it abound with fine well-built and
+populous towns, agreeably enriched with vast quantities of corn and
+cattle, palm-wine, and oil. The inhabitants all apply themselves,
+without distinction, to agriculture; some sow corn; others press oil,
+and draw wine from the palm-trees."
+
+Smith, who was sent out by the royal African company in 1726, assures
+us, "that the discerning natives account it their greatest unhappiness,
+that they were ever visited by the Europeans. They say that we
+Christians introduced the traffic of slaves; and that before our coming
+they lived in peace. But, say they, it is observable, wherever
+Christianity comes, there come swords and guns, and powder and ball,
+with it."
+
+"The Europeans," says Bruce, "are far from desiring to act as
+peace-makers among them. It would be too contrary to their interests;
+for the only object of their wars is to carry off slaves; and, as these
+form the principal part of their traffic, they would be apprehensive of
+drying up the source of it, were they to encourage the people to live
+well together."
+
+"The neighbourhood of the Damel and Tin keep them perpetually at war,
+the benefit of which accrues to the Company, who buy all the prisoners
+made on either side; and the more there are to sell, the greater is
+their profit; for the only end of their armaments is to make captives,
+to sell them to the white traders."
+
+Artus, of Dantzic, says, that in his time "those liable to pay fines
+were banished till the fine was paid; when they returned to their houses
+and possessions."
+
+Bosman affirms, "that formerly all crimes in Africa were compensated by
+fine or restitution, and, where restitution was impracticable, by
+corporal punishment."
+
+Moore says, "Since this trade has been used, all punishments have been
+changed into slavery. There being an advantage in such condemnation,
+they strain the crimes very hard, in order to get the benefit of selling
+the criminal. Not only murder, theft, and adultery, are punished by
+selling the criminal for a slave, but every trifling crime is punished
+in the same manner."
+
+Loyer affirms that "the King of Sain, on the least pretence, sells his
+subjects for European goods. He is so tyrannically severe, that he makes
+a whole village responsible for the fault of one inhabitant; and on the
+least offence sells them all for slaves."
+
+Such, he said, were the testimonies, not of persons whom he had
+summoned; not of friends of the abolition; but of men who were
+themselves, many of them, engaged in the Slave Trade. Other testimonies
+might be added; but these were sufficient to refute the assertions of
+his opponents, and to show the kind services we had done to Africa by
+the introduction of this trade.
+
+He would just touch upon the argument, so often repeated, that other
+nations would carry on the Slave Trade, if we abandoned it. But how did
+we know this? Had not Denmark given a noble example to the contrary? She
+had consented to abolish the trade in ten years; and had she not done
+this, even though we, after an investigation for nearly five years, had
+ourselves hung back? But what might not be expected, if we were to take
+up the cause in earnest; if we were to proclaim to all nations the
+injustice of the trade, and to solicit their concurrence in the
+abolition of it! He hoped the representatives of the nation would not be
+less just than the people. The latter had stepped forward, and expressed
+their sense more generally by petitions, than in any instance in which
+they had ever before interfered. To see this great cause thus triumphing
+over distinctions and prejudices was a noble spectacle. Whatever might
+be said of our political divisions, such a sight had taught us that
+there were subjects still beyond the reach of party; that there was a
+point of elevation, where we ascended above the jarring of the
+discordant elements, which ruffled and agitated the vale below. In our
+ordinary atmosphere clouds and vapours obscured the air, and we were the
+sport of a thousand conflicting winds and adverse currents; but here we
+moved in a higher region, where all was pure and clear, and free from
+perturbation and discomposure:
+
+
+  As some tall cliff, that lifts its awful form,
+  Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm;
+  Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
+  Eternal sunshine settles on its head.
+
+
+Here then, on this august eminence, he hoped we should build the Temple
+of Benevolence; that we should lay its foundation deep in Truth and
+Justice; and that we should inscribe upon its gates, "Peace and Good
+Will to Men." Here we should offer the first-fruits of our benevolence,
+and endeavour to compensate, if possible, for the injuries we had
+brought upon our fellow-men.
+
+He would only now observe, that his conviction of the indispensable
+necessity of immediately abolishing this trade remained as strong as
+ever. Let those who talked of allowing three or four years to the
+continuance of it, reflect on the disgraceful scenes which had passed
+last year. As for himself, he would wash his hands of the blood which
+would be spilled in this horrid interval. He could not, however, but
+believe, that the hour was come, when we should put a final period to
+the existence of this cruel traffic. Should he unhappily be mistaken, he
+would never desert the cause; but to the last moment of his life he
+would exert his utmost powers in its support. He would now move, "That
+it is the opinion of this committee, that the trade carried on by
+British subjects for the purpose of obtaining slaves on the coast of
+Africa, ought to be abolished."
+
+Mr. Baillie was in hopes that the friends of the abolition would have
+been contented with the innocent blood which had been already shed. The
+great island of St. Domingo had been torn to pieces by insurrections.
+The most dreadful barbarities had been perpetrated there. In the year
+1789, the imports into it exceeded five millions sterling. The exports
+from it in the same year amounted to six millions; and the trade
+employed three hundred thousand tons of shipping, and thirty thousand
+seamen. This fine island, thus advantageously situated, had been lost in
+consequence of the agitation of the question of the Slave Trade. Surely
+so much mischief ought to have satisfied those who supported it; but
+they required the total destruction of all the West Indian colonies,
+belonging to Great Britain, to complete the ruin.
+
+The honourable gentleman, who had just spoken, had dwelt upon the
+enormities of the Slave Trade. He was far from denying that many acts of
+inhumanity might accompany it; but as human nature was much the same
+everywhere, it would be unreasonable to expect among African traders, or
+the inhabitants of our islands, a degree of perfection in morals, which
+was not to be found in Great Britain itself. Would any man estimate the
+character of the English nation by what was to be read in the records of
+the Old Bailey? He himself, however, had lived sixteen years in the West
+Indies, and he could bear testimony to the general good usage of the
+slaves.
+
+Before the agitation of this impolitic question the slaves were
+contented with their situation. There was a mutual confidence between
+them and their masters: and this continued to be the case till the new
+doctrines were broached. But now depots of arms were necessary on every
+estate; and the scene was totally reversed. Nor was their religious then
+inferior to their civil state. When the English took possession of
+Grenada, where his property lay, they found them baptized and instructed
+in the principles of the Roman Catholic faith. The priests of that
+persuasion had indeed been indefatigable in their vocation; so that
+imported Africans generally obtained within twelve months a tolerable
+idea of their religious duties. He had seen the slaves there go through
+the public mass in a manner, and with a fervency, which would have done
+credit to more civilized societies. But the case was now altered; for,
+except where the Moravians had been, there was no trace in our islands
+of an attention to their religious interests.
+
+It had been said that their punishments were severe. There might be
+instances of cruelty; but these were not general. Many of them were
+undoubtedly ill disposed; though not more, according to their number, on
+a plantation, than in a regiment, or in a ship's crew. Had we never
+heard of seamen being flogged from ship to ship, or of soldiers dying in
+the very act of punishment? Had we not also heard, even in this country
+of boasted liberty, of seamen being seized, and carried away, when
+returning from distant voyages, after an absence of many years; and this
+without even being allowed to see their wives and families? As to
+distressed objects, he maintained, that there was more wretchedness and
+poverty in St. Giles's, than in all the West Indian islands belonging to
+Great Britain.
+
+He would now speak of the African and West Indian trades. The imports
+and exports of these amounted to upwards of ten millions annually; and
+they gave employment to three hundred thousand tons of shipping, and to
+about twenty-five thousand seamen. These trades had been sanctioned by
+our ancestors in parliament. The acts for this purpose might be classed
+under three heads. First, they were such as declared the colonies, and
+the trade thereof, advantageous to Great Britain, and therefore entitled
+to her protection. Secondly, such as authorized, protected, and
+encouraged the trade to Africa, as advantageous in itself, and necessary
+to the welfare and existence of the sugar colonies: and, Thirdly, such
+as promoted and secured loans of money to the proprietors of the said
+colonies, either from British subjects, or from foreigners. These
+acts[A], he apprehended, ought to satisfy every person of the legality
+and usefulness of these trades. They were enacted in reigns
+distinguished for the production of great and enlightened characters. We
+heard then of no wild and destructive doctrines like the present. These
+were reserved for this age of novelty and innovation. But he must remind
+the House, that the inhabitants of our islands had as good a right to
+the protection of their property, as the inhabitants of Great Britain.
+Nor could it be diminished in any shape without full compensation. The
+proprietors of lands in the ceded islands, which were purchased of
+government under specific conditions of settlement, ought to be
+indemnified. They also (of whom he was one), who had purchased the
+territory granted by the crown to General Monkton, in the island, of St.
+Vincent, ought to be indemnified also. The sale of this had gone on
+briskly, till it was known that a plan was in agitation for the
+abolition of the Slave Trade. Since that period, the original purchasers
+had done little or nothing, and they had many hundred acres on hand,
+which would be of no value, if the present question was carried. In
+fact, they had a right to compensation. The planters generally spent
+their estates in this country. They generally educated their children in
+it. They had never been found seditious, or rebellious; and they
+demanded of the Parliament of Great Britain that protection, which, upon
+the principles of good faith, it was in duty bound to afford them in
+common with the rest of his majesty's loyal subjects.
+
+[Footnote A: Here he quoted them specifically.]
+
+Mr. Vaughan stated that, being a West Indian by birth, and connected
+with the islands, he could speak from his own knowledge. In the early
+part of his life he was strongly in favour of the abolition of the Slave
+Trade. He had been educated by Dr. Priestley, and the father of Mrs.
+Barbauld; who were both of them friends to that question. Their
+sentiments he had imbibed; but, although bred at the feet of Gamaliel,
+he resolved to judge for himself, and he left England for Jamaica.
+
+He found the situation of the slaves much better than he had imagined.
+Setting aside liberty, they were as well off as the poor in Europe. They
+had little want of clothes or fuel; they had a house and garden found
+them, were never imprisoned for debts, nor deterred from marrying
+through fear of being unable to support a family; their orphans and
+widows were taken care of, as they themselves were when old and
+disabled; they had medical attendance without expense; they had private
+property, which no master ever took from them; and they were resigned to
+their situation, and looked for nothing beyond it. Perhaps persons might
+have been prejudiced by living in the towns, to which slaves were often
+sent for punishment; and where there were many small proprietors; or by
+seeing no negro otherwise than as belonging to the labouring poor; but
+they appeared to him to want nothing but liberty; and it was only
+occasionally that they were abused.
+
+There were two prejudices with respect to the colonies, which he would
+notice. The first was, that cruel usage occasioned the inequality of
+births and deaths among the slaves. But did cruelty cause the excess of
+deaths above births in the city of London? No--this excess had other
+causes. So it had among the slaves. Of these more males were imported
+than females: they were dissolute too in their morals; they had also
+diseases peculiar to themselves. But in those islands where they nearly
+kept up their numbers, there was this difficulty, that the equality was
+preserved by the increase on one estate compensating for the decrease on
+another. These estates, however, would not interchange their numbers;
+whereas, where freedom prevailed, the free labourers circulated from one
+employer to another, and appeared wherever they were wanted.
+
+The second was, that all chastisement of the slaves was cruelty. But
+this was not true. Their owners generally withdrew them from public
+justice; so that they, who would have been publicly executed elsewhere,
+were often kept alive by their masters, and were found punished again
+and again for repeating their faults. Distributive justice occasioned
+many punishments; as one slave was to be protected against every other
+slave: and, when one pilfered from another, then the master interfered.
+These punishments were to be distinguished from such as arose from
+enforcing labour, or from the cruelty of their owners. Indeed he had
+gone over the islands, and he had seen but little ill usage. He had seen
+none on the estate where he resided. The whip, the stocks, and
+confinement, were all the modes of punishment he had observed in other
+places. Some slaves belonging to his father were peculiarly well off.
+They saved money, and spent it in their own way.
+
+But notwithstanding all he had said, he allowed that there was room for
+improvement; and particularly for instilling into the slaves the
+principles of religion. Where this should be realized, there would be
+less punishment, more work, more marriages, more issue, and more
+attachment to masters. Other improvements would be the establishment of
+medical societies; the introduction of task-work; and grants of premiums
+and honorary distinctions both to fathers and mothers, according to the
+number of children which they should rear. Besides this, Negro evidence
+should be allowed in the courts of law, it being left to the discretion
+of the court or jury to take or reject it, according to the nature of
+the case. Cruel masters also should be kept in order in various ways.
+They should he liable to have their slaves taken from them, and put in
+trust. Every instrument of punishment should be banished, except the
+whip. The number of lashes should be limited; and the punishment should
+not be repeated till after intervals. These and other improvements
+should be immediately adopted by the planters. The character of the
+exemplary among them was hurt by being confounded with that of lower and
+baser men. He concluded by stating, that the owners of slaves were
+entitled to compensation, if, by means of the abolition, they should not
+be able to find labourers for the cultivation of their lands[A].
+
+[Footnote A: Mr. Vaughan declared in a future stage of the debate, that
+he wished to see a prudent termination both of the Slave Trade and of
+slavery; and that, though he was the eldest son of his father, he never
+would, on any consideration, become the owner of a slave.]
+
+Mr. Henry Thornton conceived, that the two last speakers had not spoken
+to the point. The first had described the happy state of the slaves in
+the West Indies. The latter had made similar representations; but yet
+had allowed, that much improvement might be made in their condition. But
+this had nothing to do with the question then before them. The manner of
+procuring slaves in Africa was the great evil to be remedied. Africa was
+to be stripped of its inhabitants to supply a population for the West
+Indies. There was a Dutch proverb, which said, "My son; get money,
+honestly if you can--but get money:" or, in other words, "Get slaves,
+honestly if you can--but get slaves." This was the real grievance; and
+the two honourable gentlemen, by confining their observations to the
+West Indies, had entirely overlooked it.
+
+Though this evil had been fully proved, he could not avoid stating to
+the House some new facts, which had come to his knowledge as a director
+of the Sierra Leone Company, and which would still further establish it.
+The consideration, that they had taken place since the discussion of the
+last year on this subject, obliged him to relate them.
+
+Mr. Falconbridge, agent to the Company, sitting one evening in Sierra
+Leone, heard a shout, and immediately afterwards the report of a gun.
+Fearing an attack, he armed forty of the settlers, and rushed with them
+to the place from whence the noise came. He found a poor wretch, who had
+been crossing from a neighbouring village, in the possession of a party
+of kidnappers, who were tying his hands. Mr. Falconbridge, however,
+dared not rescue him, lest, in the defenceless state of his own town,
+retaliation might be made upon him.
+
+At another time a young woman, living half a mile off, was sold, without
+any criminal charge, to one of the slave-ships. She was well acquainted
+with the agent's wife, and had been with her only the day before. Her
+cries were heard; but it was impossible to relieve her.
+
+At another time a young lad, one of the free settlers who went from
+England, was caught by a neighbouring chief, as he was straggling alone
+from home, and sold for a slave. The pretext was, that some one in the
+town of Sierra Leone had committed an offence. Hence the first person
+belonging to it, who could be seized, was to be punished. Happily the
+free settlers saw him in his chains; and they recovered him, before he
+was conveyed to the ship.
+
+To mark still more forcibly the scenes of misery, to which the Slave
+Trade gave birth, he would mention a case stated to him in a letter by
+King Naimbanna. It had happened to respectable person, in no less than
+three instances, to have some branches of his family kidnapped, and
+carried off to the West Indies. At one time three young men, Corpro,
+Banna, and Marbrour, were decoyed on board a Danish slave-ship, under
+pretence of buying something, and were taken away. At another time
+another relation piloted a vessel down the river. He begged to be put on
+shore, when he came opposite to his own town; but he was pressed to
+pilot her to the river's mouth. The captain then pleaded the
+impracticability of putting him on shore; carried him to Jamaica; and
+sold him for a slave. Fortunately, however, by means of a letter, which
+was conveyed there, the man, by the assistance of the governor, was sent
+back to Sierra Leone. At another time another relation was also
+kidnapped. But he had not the good fortune, like the former, to return.
+
+He would mention one other instance. A son had sold his own father, for
+whom he obtained a considerable price: for, as the father was rich in
+domestic slaves, it was not doubted that he would offer largely for his
+ransom. The old man accordingly gave twenty-two of these in exchange for
+himself. The rest, however, being from that time filled with
+apprehensions of being on some ground or other sold to the slave-ships,
+fled to the mountains of Sierra Leone, where they now dragged on a
+miserable existence. The son himself was sold, in his turn, soon after.
+In short, the whole of that unhappy peninsula, as he learnt from
+eye-witnesses, had been desolated by the trade in slaves. Towns were
+seen standing without inhabitants all over the coast; in several of
+which the agent of the Company had been. There was nothing but distrust
+among the inhabitants. Every one, if he stirred from home, felt himself
+obliged to be armed.
+
+Such was the nature of the Slave Trade. It had unfortunately obtained
+the name of a trade; and many had been deceived by the appellation; but
+it was war, and not trade. It was a mass of crimes, and not commerce. It
+was that which prevented the introduction of a trade in Africa; for it
+was only by clearing and cultivating the lands, that the climate could
+be made healthy for settlements; but this wicked traffic, by dispersing
+the inhabitants, and causing the lands to remain uncultivated, made the
+coast unhealthy to Europeans. He had found, in attempting to establish a
+colony there, that it was an obstacle which opposed itself to him in
+innumerable ways; it created more embarrassments than all the natural
+impediments of the country; and it was more hard to contend with than
+any difficulties of climate, soil, or natural disposition of the people.
+
+He would say a few words relative to the numerous petitions which were
+then on the table of the House. They had shown, in an extraordinary
+manner, the opinion of the people. He did not wish to turn this into a
+constitutional question; but he would observe, that it was of the utmost
+consequence to the maintenance of the constitution of this country, that
+the reputation of parliament should be maintained. But nothing could
+prejudice its character so much, as a vote, which should lead the people
+to believe that the legislative body was the more corrupt part of it,
+and that it was slow to adopt moral principles.
+
+It had been often insinuated that parliament, by interfering in this
+trade, departed from its proper functions; No idea could be more absurd;
+for, was it not its duty to correct abuses? and what abuses were greater
+than robbery and murder? He was, indeed, anxious for the abolition. He
+desired it, as a commercial man, on account of the commercial character
+of the country. He desired it for the reputation of parliament, on which
+so materially depended the preservation of our happy constitution; but
+most of all he prayed for it for the sake of those eternal principle's
+of justice, which it was the duty of nations, as well as of individuals,
+to support.
+
+Colonel Tarleton repeated his arguments of the last year. In addition to
+these he inveighed bitterly against the abolitionists, as a junto of
+secretaries, sophists, enthusiasts, and fanatics. He condemned the
+abolition as useless, unless other nations would take it up. He brought
+to the recollection of the House the barbarous scenes which had taken
+place it in St. Domingo, all of which, he said, had originated in the
+discussion of this question. He described the alarms, in which the
+inhabitants of our own islands were kept, lest similar scenes should
+occur from the same cause. He ridiculed the petitions on the table.
+Itinerant clergymen, mendicant physicians, and others, had extorted
+signatures from the sick, the indigent, and the traveller. School-boys
+were invited to sign them, under the promise of a holiday. He had
+letters to produce, which would prove all these things though he was not
+authorized to give up the names of those who had written them.
+
+Mr. Montagu said, that, in the last session, he had simply entered his
+protest against the trade; but now He could be no longer silent; and as
+there were many, who had conceived regulation to be more desirable than
+abolition, he would himself to that subject.
+
+Regulation, as it related to the manner of procuring slaves, was utterly
+impossible; for how could we know the case of each individual, whom we
+forced away into bondage? Could we establish tribunals all along the
+coast, and in every ship, to find it out? What judges could we get for
+such an office? But, if this could not be done upon the coast, how could
+we ascertain the justness of the captivity of by far the greatest
+number, who were brought from immense distances inland?
+
+He would not dwell upon the proof of the inefficiency of regulations, as
+to the Middle Passage. His honourable friend, Mr. Wilberforce, had
+shown, that, however the mortality might have been lessened in some
+ships by the regulations of Sir William Dolben, yet, wherever a
+contagious disorder broke out, the greatest part of the cargo was swept
+away. But what regulations by the British parliament could prevent these
+contagions, or remove them suddenly, when they appeared?
+
+Neither would regulations be effectual, as they related to the
+protection of the slaves in the West Indies. It might, perhaps, be
+enacted, as Mr. Vaughan had suggested, that their punishments should be
+moderate; and that the number of lashes should be limited. But the
+colonial legislatures had already done as much, as the magic of words
+alone could do, upon this subject; yet the evidence upon the table
+clearly proved, that the only protection of slaves was in the clemency
+of their masters. Any barbarity might be exercised with impunity,
+provided no White person were to see it, though it happened in the sight
+of a thousand slaves. Besides, by splitting the offence, and inflicting
+the punishment at intervals, the law could be evaded, although the fact
+was within the reach of the evidence of a White man. Of this evasion
+Captain Cook, of the 89th regiment, had given a shocking instance; and
+Chief Justice Ottley had candidly confessed, that "he could devise no
+method of bringing a master, so offending, to justice, while the
+evidence of the slave continued inadmissible." But perhaps councils of
+protection, and guardians of the slaves, might be appointed. This,
+again, was an expedient which sounded well, but which would be nugatory
+and absurd. What person would risk the comfort of his life by the
+exercise of so invidious an interference? But supposing that one or two
+individuals could be found, who would sacrifice all their time, and the
+friendship of their associates, for the good of the slaves; what could
+they effect? Could they be in all places at once? But even if acts of
+barbarity should be related to them, how were they to come at the proof
+of them?
+
+It appeared, then, that no regulations could be effectual until the
+slaves were admitted to give their evidence; but to admit them to this
+privilege in their present state, would be to endanger the safety and
+property of their masters. Mr. Vaughan had, however, recommended this
+measure with limitations, but it would produce nothing but discontent;
+for how were the slaves to be persuaded that it was fit they should be
+admitted to speak the truth, and then be disbelieved and disregarded?
+What a fermentation would such conduct naturally excite in men dismissed
+with injuries unredressed, though abundantly proved, in their
+apprehension, by their testimony? In fact, no regulations would do.
+There was no cure for these evils, but in the abolition of the Slave
+Trade. He called upon the planters to concur with his honourable friend,
+Mr. Wilberforce, in this great measure. He wished them to consider the
+progress which the opinion of the injustice of this trade was making in
+the nation at large, as manifested by the petitions; which had almost
+obstructed the proceedings of the House by their perpetual introduction.
+It was impossible for them to stifle this great question. As for
+himself, he would renew his profession of last year, that he would never
+cease, but with life, to promote so glorious an end.
+
+Mr. Whitbread said, that even if he could conceive, that the trade was,
+as some had asserted it to be, founded on principles of humanity; that
+the Africans were rescued from death in their own country; that, upon
+being carried to the West Indies, they were put under kind masters; that
+their labour there was easy; that at evening they returned cheerful to
+their homes; that in sickness they were attended with care; and that
+their old age was rendered comfortable; even then he would vote for the
+abolition of the Slave Trade, inasmuch as he was convinced that that
+which was fundamentally wrong, no practice could justify.
+
+No eloquence could persuade him, that the Africans were torn from their
+country and their dearest connexions, merely that they might lead a
+happier life; or that they could be placed under the uncontrolled
+dominion of others without suffering. Arbitrary power would spoil the
+hearts of the best; hence would arise tyranny on the one side, and a
+sense of injury on the other. Hence the passions would be let loose, and
+a state of perpetual enmity would follow.
+
+He needed only to go to the accounts of those who defended the system of
+slavery, to show that it was cruel. He was forcibly struck last year by
+an expression of an honourable member, an advocate for the trade, who,
+when he came to speak of the slaves, on selling off the stock of a
+plantation, said that they fetched less than the common price, because
+they were damaged. Damaged! What! Were they goods and chattels? What an
+idea was this to hold out of our fellow-creatures! We might imagine how
+slaves were treated, if they could be spoken of in such a manner.
+Perhaps these unhappy people had lingered out the best part of their
+lives in the service of their master. Able then to do but little, they
+were sold for little! and the remaining substance of their sinews was to
+be pressed out by another, yet more hardened than the former, and who
+had made a calculation of their vitals accordingly.
+
+As another proof, he would mention a passage in a pamphlet, in which the
+author, describing the happy situation of the slaves, observed, that a
+good negro never wanted a character; a bad one could always be detected
+by his weals and scars. What was this but to say, that there were
+instruments in use which left indelible marks, behind them; and who
+would say that these were used justly?
+
+An honourable gentleman, Mr. Vaughan, had said, that setting aside
+slavery, the slaves were better off than the poor in this country. But
+what was it that we wished to abolish! Was it not the Slave Trade, which
+would destroy in time the cruel distinction he had mentioned? The same
+honourable gentleman had also expressed his admiration of their
+resignation; but might it not be that resignation which was the
+consequence of despair?
+
+Colonel Tarleton had insinuated that the petitions on the table had been
+obtained in an objectionable manner. He had the honour to present one
+from his constituents, which he would venture to say had originated with
+themselves, and that there did not exist more respectable names in the
+kingdom than those of the persons who had signed it. He had also
+asserted, that there was a strong similitude in their tenour and
+substance, as if they had been manufactured by the same persons. This
+was by no means to be wondered at. There was surely but one plain tale
+to tell, and it was not surprising that it had been clothed in nearly
+the same expressions. There was but one boon to ask, and that was--the
+abolition of this wicked trade.
+
+It had been said by another, (Mr. Baillie,) that the horrible
+insurrections in St. Domingo arose from the discussion of the question
+of the Slave Trade. He denied the assertion; and maintained that they
+were the effect of the trade itself. There was a point of endurance,
+beyond which human nature could not go, at which the mind of man rose by
+its native elasticity with a spring and violence proportioned to the
+degree to which it had been depressed. The calamities in St. Domingo
+proceeded from the Slave Trade alone; and, if it were continued, similar
+evils were to be apprehended in our own islands. The cruelties which the
+slaves had perpetrated in that unfortunate colony they had learnt from
+their masters. Had not an African eyes? Had he not ears? Had he not
+organs, senses, and passions? If you pricked him, would he not feel the
+puncture, and bleed? If you poisoned him, would he not die? and, if you
+wronged him, would he not revenge? But he had said sufficient, for he
+feared he could not better the instruction.
+
+Mr. Milbank would only just observe, that the policy of the measure of
+the abolition was as great as its justice was undeniable. Where slavery
+existed, everything was out of its natural place. All improvement was at
+an end; there must also, from the nature of the human heart, be
+oppression. He warned the planters against the danger of fresh
+importations, and invited their concurrence in the measure.
+
+Mr. Dundas (afterwards Viscount Melville) declared that he had always
+been a warm friend to the abolition of the Slave Trade, though he
+differed from Mr. Wilberforce as to the mode of effecting it.
+
+The abolitionists, and those on the opposite side of the question, had,
+both of them, gone into extremes. The former were for the immediate and
+abrupt annihilation of the trade; the latter considered it as
+essentially necessary to the existence of the West Indian islands, and
+therefore laid it down that it was to be continued for ever. Such was
+the vast distance between the parties. He would now address himself to
+each.
+
+He would say first, that he agreed with his honourable friend, Mr.
+Wilberforce, in very material points. He believed the trade was not
+founded in policy; that the continuation of it was not essential to the
+preservation of our trade with the West Indian islands; and that the
+slaves were not only to be maintained, but increased there, by natural
+population. He agreed, too, as to the propriety of the abolition. But
+when his honourable friend talked of direct and abrupt abolition, he
+would submit it to him, whether he did not run counter to the prejudices
+of those who were most deeply interested in the question; and whether,
+if he could obtain his object without wounding these, it would not be
+better to do it? Did he not also forget the sacred attention which
+parliament had ever shown to the private interests and patrimonial
+rights of individuals?
+
+Whatever idea men might then have of the African trade, certain it was
+that they, who had connected themselves with it, had done it under the
+sanction of parliament. It might also be well worth while to consider,
+(though the conduct of other nations ought not to deter us from doing
+our duty,) whether British subjects in the West Indies might not be
+supplied with slaves under neutral flags. Now he believed it was
+possible to avoid these objections, and at the same time to act in
+harmony with the prejudices which had been mentioned. This might be done
+by regulations, by which we should effect the end much more speedily
+than by the way proposed. By regulations, he meant such as would
+increase the breed of the slaves in the West Indies; such as would
+ensure a moral education to their children; and such as would even in
+time extinguish hereditary slavery. The extinction, however, of this was
+not to be effected by allowing the son of an African slave to obtain his
+freedom on the death of his parent. Such a son should be considered as
+born free; he should then be educated at the expense of the person
+importing his parents; and, when arrived at such a degree of strength as
+might qualify him to labour, he should work for a term of years for the
+payment of the expense of his education and maintenance. It was
+impossible to emancipate the existing slaves at once; nor would such an
+emancipation be of any immediate benefit to themselves; but this
+observation would not apply to their descendants, if trained and
+educated in the manner he had proposed.
+
+He would now address himself to those who adopted the opposite extreme;
+and he thought he should not assume too much when he said, that if both
+slavery and the Slave Trade could be abolished with safety to their
+property, it deeply concerned their interests to do it. Such a measure,
+also, would only be consistent with the principles of the British
+constitution. It was surely strange that we, who were ourselves free,
+should carry on a Slave Trade with Africa, and that we should never
+think of introducing cultivation into the West Indies by free labourers.
+
+That such a measure would tend to their interest he had no doubt. Did
+not all of them agree with Mr. Long, that the great danger in the West
+Indies arose from the importation of the African slaves there? Mr. Long
+had asserted, that all the insurrections there arose from these. If this
+statement was true, how directly it bore upon the present question! But
+we were told, also, by the same author, that the Slave Trade gave rise
+to robbery, murder, and all kinds of depredations on the coast of
+Africa. Had this been answered? No: except indeed it had been said that
+the slaves were such as had been condemned for crimes. Well, then, the
+imported Africans consisted of all the convicts, rogues, thieves, and
+vagabonds in Africa. But would the West Indians choose to depend on
+fresh supplies of these for the cultivation of their lands, and the
+security of their islands, when it was also found that every
+insurrection had arisen from them? It was plain the safety of the
+islands was concerned in this question. There would be danger so long as
+the trade lasted. The planters were, by these importations, creating the
+engines of their own destruction. Surely they would act more to their
+own interest if they would concur in extinguishing the trade, than by
+standing up for its continuance.
+
+He would now ask them, what right they had to suppose that Africa would
+for ever remain in a state of barbarism. If once an enlightened prince
+were to rise up there, his first act would be to annihilate the Slave
+Trade. If the light of heaven were ever to descend upon that continent,
+it would directly occasion its downfall. It was their interest then to
+contrive a mode of supplying labour, without trusting to precarious
+importations from that quarter. They might rest assured that the trade
+could not continue. He did not allude to the voice of the people in the
+petitions then lying on the table of the House; but he knew certainly,
+that an idea not only of the injustice, but of the impolicy, of this
+trade had been long entertained by men of the most enlightened
+understandings in this country. Was it then a prudent thing for them to
+rest on this commerce for the further improvement of their property?
+
+There was a species of slavery, prevailing only a few years ago, in the
+collieries in certain boroughs in Scotland. Emancipation there was
+thought a duty by parliament: but what an opposition there was to the
+measure! Nothing but ruin would be the consequence of it! After several
+years struggle the bill was Carried. Within a year after, the ruin so
+much talked of vanished in smoke, and there was an end of the business.
+It had also been contended that Sir William Dolben's bill would be the
+ruin of Liverpool: and yet one of its representatives had allowed, that
+this bill had been of benefit to the owners of the slave-vessels there.
+Was he then asking too much of the West Indians, to request a candid
+consideration of the real ground of their alarms? He would conclude by
+stating, that he meant to propose a middle way of proceeding. If there
+was a number of members in the House, who thought with him, that this
+trade ought to be ultimately abolished, but yet by moderate measures,
+which should neither invade the property nor the prejudices of
+individuals, he wished them to unite, and they might then reduce the
+question to its proper limits.
+
+Mr. Addington, the speaker, (now Viscount Sidmouth,) professed himself
+to be one of those moderate persons called upon by Mr. Dundas. He wished
+to see some middle measure suggested. The fear of doing injury to the
+property of others, had hitherto prevented him from giving an opinion
+against a system, the continuance of which he could not countenance.
+
+He utterly abhorred the Slave Trade. A noble and learned lord, who had
+now retired from the bench, said on a certain occasion, that he pitied
+the loyalty of that man, who imagined that any epithet could aggravate
+the crime of treason. So he himself knew of no language which could
+aggravate the crime of the Slave Trade. It was sufficient for every
+purpose of crimination, to assert, that man thereby was bought; and
+sold, or that he was made subject to the despotism of man. But though he
+thus acknowledged the justice due to a whole continent on the one side,
+he confessed there were opposing claims of justice on the other. The
+case of the West Indians deserved a tender consideration also.
+
+He doubted, if we were to relinquish the Slave Trade alone, whether it
+might not be carried on still more barbarously than at present; and
+whether, if we were to stop it altogether, the islands could keep up
+their present stocks. It had been asserted that they could. But he,
+thought that the stopping of the imputations could not be depended upon
+for this purpose, so much as a plan for providing them with more
+females.
+
+With the mode suggested by his right honourable friend, Mr. Dundas, he
+was pleased, though he, did not wholly agree to it. He could not grant
+liberty to the children born in the islands. He thought, also, that the
+trade ought to be permitted for ten or twelve years longer, under such
+arrangements as should introduce a kind of management among the slaves
+there, favourable to their interests, and of course to their future
+happiness. One species of regulation which he should propose, would be
+greater encouragement to the importation of females than of males, by
+means of a bounty on the former till their numbers should be found
+equal. Rewards also might be given to those slaves who should raise a
+certain number of children; and to those who should devise means of
+lightening negro-labour. If the plan of his honourable friend should
+comprehend these regulations, he would heartily concur in it. He wished
+to see the Slave Trade abolished. Indeed it did not deserve the name of
+a trade. It was not a trade, and ought not to be allowed. He was
+satisfied, that in a few years it would cease to be the reproach of this
+nation and the torment of Africa. But under regulations like these, it
+would cease without any material injury to the interests of others.
+
+Mr. Fox said, that after what had fallen from the two last speakers, he
+could remain no longer silent. Something so mischievous had come out,
+and something so like a foundation had been laid for preserving, not
+only for years to come, but for ever, this detestable traffic, that he
+should feel himself wanting in his duty, if he were not to deprecate all
+such deceptions and delusions upon the country.
+
+The honourable gentlemen had called themselves moderate men: but upon
+this subject he neither felt, nor desired to feel, anything like a
+sentiment of moderation. Their speeches had reminded him of a passage in
+MIDDLETON'S _Life of Cicero_. The translation of it was defective,
+though it would equally suit his purpose. He says, "To enter into a
+man's house, and kill him, his wife, and family, in the night, is
+certainly a most heinous crime, and deserving of death; but to break
+open his house, to murder him, his wife, and all his children in the
+night, may be still very right, provided it be done with moderation."
+Now, was there anything more absurd in this passage, than to say, that
+the Slave Trade might be carried on with moderation; for, if you could
+not rob or murder a single man with moderation, with what moderation
+could you pillage and wound a whole nation? In fact, the question of the
+abolition was simply a question of justice. It was only, whether we
+should authorize by law, respecting Africa, the commission of crimes,
+for which, in this country, we should forfeit our lives: notwithstanding
+which, it was to be treated, in the opinion of these honourable
+gentlemen, with moderation.
+
+Mr. Addington had proposed to cure the disproportion of the sexes in the
+islands, by a bounty on the importation of females; or, in other words,
+by offering a premium to any crew of ruffians, who would tear them from
+their native country. He would let loose a banditti against the most
+weak and defenceless of the sex. He would occasion these to kill
+fathers, husbands, and brothers, to get possession of their relatives,
+the females, who, after this carnage, were to be reserved for--slavery.
+He should like to see the man, who would pen such a moderate clause for
+a British parliament.
+
+Mr. Dundas had proposed to abolish the Slave Trade, by bettering the
+state of the slaves in the islands, and particularly that of their
+offspring. His plan, with respect to the latter, was not a little
+curious. They were to become free, when born; and then they were to be
+educated, at the expense of those to whom their fathers belonged. But it
+was clear, that they could not be educated for nothing. In order,
+therefore, to repay this expense, they were to be slaves for ten or
+fifteen years. In short, they were to have an education, which was to
+qualify them to become freemen; and after they had been so educated,
+they were to become slaves. But as this free education might possibly
+unfit them for submitting to slavery; so, after they had been made to
+bow under the yoke for ten or fifteen years, they might then, perhaps,
+be equally unfit to become free; and therefore, might be retained as
+slaves for a few years longer, if not for their whole lives. He never
+heard of a scheme so moderate, and yet so absurd and visionary.
+
+The same honourable gentleman had observed, that the conduct of other
+nations should not hinder us from doing, our duty; but yet neutrals
+would furnish, our islands with slaves. What was the inference from this
+moderate assertion, but that we might as well supply them ourselves? He
+hoped, if we were yet to be supplied, it would never be by Englishmen.
+We ought no longer to be concerned in such a crime.
+
+An adversary, Mr. Baillie, had said, that it would not be fair to take
+the character of this country from the records of the Old Bailey. He did
+not at all wonder, when the subject of the Slave Trade was mentioned,
+that the Old Bailey naturally occurred to his recollection. The facts,
+which had been described in the evidence, were associated in all our
+minds with the ideas of criminal justice. But Mr. Baillie had forgot the
+essential difference between the two cases. When we learnt from these
+records, that crimes were committed in this country, we learnt also,
+that they were punished with transportation and death. But the crimes
+committed in the Slave Trade were passed over with impunity. Nay, the
+perpetrators were even sent out again to commit others.
+
+As to the mode of obtaining slaves, it had been suggested as the least
+disreputable, that they became so in consequence of condemnation as
+criminals. But he would judge of the probability of this mode by the
+reasonableness of it. No less than eighty thousand Africans were
+exported annually by the different nations of Europe from their own
+country. Was it possible to believe that this number could have been
+legally convicted of crimes, for which they had justly forfeited their
+liberty? The supposition was ridiculous. The truth was, that every
+enormity was practised to obtain the persons of these unhappy people; He
+referred those present to the case in the evidence of the African
+trader, who had kidnapped and sold a girl, and who was afterwards
+kidnapped and sold himself. He desired them to reason upon the
+conversation which had taken place between the trader and the captain of
+the ship on this occasion. He desired them also to reason upon the
+instance mentioned this evening, which had happened in the river
+Cameroons, and they would infer all the rapine, all the desolation, and
+all the bloodshed, which had been placed to the account of this
+execrable trade.
+
+An attempt had been made to impress the House with the horrible scenes
+which had taken place in St. Domingo, as an argument against the
+abolition of the Slave Trade; but could any more weighty argument be
+produced in its favour? What were the causes of the insurrections there?
+They were two. The first was the indecision of the National Assembly,
+who wished to compromise between that which was right and that which was
+wrong on this subject. And the second was the oppression of the people
+of colour, and of the slaves. In the first of the causes we saw
+something like the moderation of Mr. Dundas and Mr. Addington. One day
+this Assembly talked of liberty, and favoured the Blacks. Another day
+they suspended their measures and favoured the Whites. They wished to
+steer a middle course; but decision had been mercy. Decision even
+against the planters would have been a thousand times better than
+indecision and half measures. In the mean time, the people of colour
+took the great work of justice into their own hands. Unable, however, to
+complete this of themselves, they called in the aid of the slaves. Here
+began the second cause; for the slaves, feeling their own power, began
+to retaliate on the Whites. And here it may be observed, that, in all
+revolutions, the clemency or cruelty of the victors will always be in
+proportion to their former privileges, of their oppression. That the
+slaves then should have been guilty of great excesses, was not to be
+wondered at; for where did they learn their cruelty? They learnt it from
+those who had tyrannized over them. The oppression, which they
+themselves had suffered, was fresh in their memories, and this had
+driven them to exercise their vengeance so furiously. If we wished to
+prevent similar scenes in our own islands, we must reject all moderate
+measures, and at once abolish the Slave Trade. By doing this, we should
+procure a better treatment for the slaves there; and when this happy
+change of system should have taken place, we might depend on them for
+the defence of the islands as much as on the whites themselves.
+
+Upon the whole, he would give his opinion of this traffic in a few
+words. He believed it to be impolitic--he knew it to be inhuman--he was
+certain it was unjust--he thought it so inhuman and unjust, that, if the
+colonies could not be cultivated without it, they ought not to be
+cultivated at all. It would be much better for us to be without them,
+than, not abolish the Slave Trade. He hoped therefore that members would
+this night act the part which would do them honour. He declared, that,
+whether he should vote in a large minority or a small one, he would
+never give up the cause. Whether in Parliament or out of it, in whatever
+situation he might ever be, as long as he had a voice to speak, this
+question should never be at rest. Believing the trade to be of the
+nature of crimes and pollutions, which stained the honour of the
+country, he would never relax his efforts. It was his duty to prevent
+man from preying upon man; and if he and his friends should die before
+they had attained their glorious object, he hoped there would never be
+wanting men alive to their duty, who would continue to labour till the
+evil should be wholly done away. If the situation of the Africans was as
+happy as servitude could make them, he could not consent to the enormous
+crime of selling man to man; nor permit a practice to continue, which
+put an entire bar to the civilization of one quarter of the globe. He
+was sure that the nation would not much longer allow the continuance of
+enormities which shocked human nature. The West Indians had no right to
+demand that crimes should be permitted by this country for their
+advantage; and, if they were wise, they would lend their cordial
+assistance to such measures, as would bring about, in the shortest
+possible time, the abolition of this execrable trade.
+
+Mr. Dundas rose again, but it was only to move an amendment, namely,
+that the word "gradually" should be inserted before the words "to be
+abolished" in Mr. Wilberforce's motion.
+
+Mr. Jenkinson (afterwards Earl of Liverpool) said, that the opinions of
+those who were averse to the abolition had been unfairly stated. They
+had been described as founded on policy, in opposition to humanity. If
+it could be made out that humanity would be aided by the abolition, he
+would be the last person to oppose it. The question was not, he
+apprehended, whether the trade was founded in injustice and oppression:
+he admitted it was. Nor was it, whether it was in itself abstractedly an
+evil: he admitted this also; but whether, under all the circumstances of
+the case, any considerable advantage would arise to a number of our
+fellow-creatures from the abolition of the trade in the manner in which
+it had been proposed.
+
+He was ready to admit, that the Africans at home were made miserable by
+the Slave Trade, and that, if it were universally abolished, great
+benefit would arise to them. No one, however, would assert, that these
+miseries arose from the trade as carried on by Great Britain only. Other
+countries occasioned as much of the evil as we did; and if the abolition
+of it by us should prove only the transferring of it to those countries,
+very little benefit would result from the measure.
+
+What then was the probability of our example being followed by foreign
+powers? Five years had now elapsed since the question was first started,
+and what had any of them done? The Portuguese continued the trade. The
+Spaniards still gave a bounty to encourage it. He believed there were
+agents from Holland in this country, who were then negotiating with
+persons concerned in it in order to secure its continuance. The
+abolition also had been proposed in the National Assembly of France, and
+had been rejected there. From these circumstances he had a right to
+infer, that if we gave up the trade, we should only transfer it to those
+countries: but this transfer would be entirely against the Africans. The
+mortality on board English ships, previously to the regulating bill, was
+four and an-eighth per cent. Since that time it had been reduced to
+little more than three per cent[A]. In French ships it was near ten, and
+in Dutch ships from five to seven, per cent. In Portuguese it was less
+than either in French or Dutch, but more than in English ships since the
+regulating bill. Thus the deaths of the Africans would be more than
+doubled, if we were to abolish the trade.
+
+[Footnote A: Mr. Wilberforce stated it on the same evening to be between
+ten and eleven per cent. for the last year. The number then exported
+from Africa to our islands was rather more than 22,000, of whom more
+than 2,300 died.]
+
+Perhaps it might be replied, that the importations being stopped in our
+own islands, fewer Africans would experience this misery, because fewer
+would be taken from their own country on this account. But he had a
+right to infer, that as the planters purchased slaves at present, they
+would still think it their interest to have them. The question then was,
+whether they could get them by smuggling. Now it appeared by the
+evidence, that many hundred slaves had been stolen from time to time
+from Jamaica, and carried into Cuba. But if persons could smuggle slaves
+out of our colonies, they could smuggle slaves into them; but
+particularly when the planters might think it to their interest to
+assist them.
+
+With respect to the slaves there, instances had been related of their
+oppression, which shocked the feelings of all who heard them: but was it
+fair to infer from these their general ill usage? Suppose a person were
+to make a collection of the different abuses, which had happened for a
+series of years under our own happy constitution, and use these as an
+argument of its worthlessness; should we not say to him, that in the
+most perfect system which the human intellect could form some defects
+would exist; and that it was unfair to draw inferences from such partial
+facts? In the same manner he would argue relative to the alleged
+treatment of the slaves. Evidence had been produced upon this point on
+both sides. He should not be afraid to oppose the authorities of Lord
+Rodney, and others, against any, however respectable, in favour of the
+abolition. But this was not necessary. There was another species of
+facts, which would answer the same end; Previously to the year 1730 the
+decrease of the slaves in our islands was very considerable. From 1730
+to 1755 the deaths were reduced to only two and a-half per cent, above
+the births; from 1755 to 1768 to only one and three-fourths; and from
+1768 to 1788 to only one per cent. This then, on the first view of the
+subject, would show, that whatever might have been the situation of
+slaves formerly, it had been gradually improved. But if, in addition to
+this, we considered the peculiar disadvanges under which they laboured;
+the small proportion of females to males; and the hurricanes, and
+famines, which had swept away thousands, we should find it physically
+impossible, that they could have increased as related, if they had been
+treated as cruelly as the friends of the abolition had described.
+
+This species of facts would enable him also to draw still more important
+conclusions; namely, that as the slaves in the West Indies had gradually
+increased, they would continue to increase; that very few years would
+pass, not only before the births were equal to the deaths, but before
+they were more numerous than the deaths; and that if this was likely to
+happen in the present state of things, how much more would it happen, if
+by certain regulations the increase of the slaves should be encouraged?
+
+The only question then was, whether it was more advantageous to breed or
+to import. He thought he should prove the former; and if so, then this
+increase was inevitable, and the importations would necessarily cease.
+
+In the first place, the gradual increase of the slaves of late years
+clearly proved, that such increase had been encouraged. But their price
+had been doubled in the last twenty years. The planter, therefore, must
+feel it his interest to desist from purchasing, if possible. But again,
+the greatest mortality was among the newly imported slaves. The diseases
+they contracted on the passage, and their deaths in the seasoning, all
+made for the same doctrine. Add to this, that slaves bred in the islands
+were more expert at colonial labour, more reconciled to their situation,
+and better disposed towards their masters than those who were brought
+from Africa.
+
+But it had been said, that the births and deaths in the islands were now
+equal; and that therefore no further supply was wanted. He denied the
+propriety of this inference. The slaves were subject to peculiar
+diseases. They were exposed also to hurricanes and consequent famines.
+That the day, however, would come, when the stock there would be
+sufficient, no person who attended to the former part of his argument
+could doubt. That they had gradually increased, were gradually
+increasing, and would, by certain regulations, increase more and more,
+must be equally obvious. But these were all considerations for
+continuing the traffic a little longer.
+
+He then desired the House to reflect upon the state of St. Domingo. Had
+not its calamities been imputed by its own deputies to the advocates for
+the abolition? Were ever any scenes of horror equal to those which had
+passed there? And should we, when principles of the same sort were
+lurking in our own islands, expose our fellow-subjects to the same
+miseries, who, if guilty of promoting this trade, had, at least, been
+encouraged in it by ourselves?
+
+That the Slave Trade was an evil, he admitted. That the state of slavery
+itself was likewise an evil, he admitted; and if the question was, not
+whether we should abolish, but whether we should establish these, he
+would be the first to oppose himself to their existence; but there were
+many evils, which we should have thought it our duty to prevent, yet
+which, when they had once arisen, it was more dangerous to oppose than
+to submit to,--The duty of a statesman was, not to consider abstractedly
+what was right or wrong, but to weigh the consequences which were likely
+to result from the abolition of an evil, against those which were likely
+to result from its continuance. Agreeing then most perfectly with the
+abolitionists in their end, he differed from them only in the means of
+accomplishing it. He was desirous of doing that gradually, which he
+conceived they were doing rashly. He had therefore drawn up two
+propositions. The first was, That an address be presented to His
+Majesty, that he would recommend to the colonial assemblies to grant
+premiums to such planters, and overseers, as should distinguish
+themselves by promoting the annual increase of the slaves by birth; and
+likewise freedom to every female slave, who had reared five children to
+the age of seven years. The second was, That a bounty of five pounds per
+head be given to the master of every slave-ship, who should import in
+any cargo a greater number of females than males, not exceeding the age
+of twenty-five years. To bring, forward these propositions, he would now
+move that the chairman leave the chair.
+
+Mr. Este wished the debate to be adjourned. He allowed there were many
+enormities in the trade, which called for regulation. There were two
+propositions before the House: the one for the immediate, and the other
+for the gradual, abolition of the trade. He thought that members should
+be allowed time to compare their respective merits. At present his own
+opinion was, that gradual abolition would answer the end proposed in the
+least exceptionable manner.
+
+Mr. Pitt rejoiced that the debate had taken a turn, which contracted the
+question into such narrow limits. The matter then in dispute was merely
+as to the time at which the abolition should take, place. He therefore
+congratulated the House, the country, and the world, that this great
+point had been gained; that we might now consider this trade as having
+received its condemnation; that this curse of mankind was seen in its
+true light; and that the greatest stigma on our national character,
+which ever yet existed, was about to be removed! Mankind, he trusted,
+were now likely to be delivered from the greatest practical evil that
+ever afflicted the human race--from the most severe and extensive
+calamity recorded in the history of the world.
+
+His honourable friend (Mr. Jenkinson) had insinuated, that any act for
+the abolition would be evaded. But if we were to enforce this act with
+all the powers of the country, how could it fail to be effectual? But
+his honourable friend had himself satisfied him, upon this point. He had
+acknowledged, that the trade would drop of itself, on account of the
+increasing dearness of the commodity imported. He would ask then, if we
+were to leave to the importer no means of importation but by smuggling;
+and if, besides all the present disadvantages, we were to load him with
+all the charges and hazards of the smuggler, would there be any danger
+of any considerable supply of fresh slaves being poured into the islands
+through this channel? The question under these circumstances, he
+pronounced, would not bear a dispute.
+
+His honourable friend had also maintained, that it would be inexpedient
+to stop the importations immediately, because the deaths and births in
+the islands were as yet not equal. But he (Mr. Pitt) had proved last
+year, from the most authentic documents, that an increase of the births
+above the deaths had already taken place. This then was the time for
+beginning the abolition. But he would now observe, that five years had
+elapsed since these documents were framed; and therefore the presumption
+was, that the black population was increasing at an extraordinary rate.
+He had not, to be sure, in his consideration of the subject, entered
+into the dreadful mortality arising from the clearing of new lands.
+Importations for this purpose were to be considered, not as carrying on
+the trade, but as setting on foot a Slave Trade, a measure which he
+believed no one present would then support. He therefore asked his
+honourable friend, whether the period he had looked to was now arrived?
+whether the West Indies, at this hour, were, not in a state in which
+they could maintain their population?
+
+It had been argued, that one or other of these two, assertions was
+false; that either the population of the slaves must be decreasing,
+(which the abolitionists denied,) or, if it was increasing, the slaves
+must have been well treated. That their population was rather increasing
+than otherwise, and also that their general treatment was by no means so
+good as it ought to have been, were both points which had been proved by
+different witnesses. Neither were they incompatible with each other. But
+he would see whether the explanation of this seeming contradiction would
+not refute the argument of expediency, as advanced by his honourable
+friend. Did the slaves decrease in numbers?--Yes. Then ill usage must
+have been the cause of it; but if so, the abolition was immediately
+necessary to, restrain it. Did they, on the other hand, increase?--Yes.
+But if so, no further importations, were wanted. Was their population
+(to take a middle course) nearly stationary, and their treatment neither
+so good nor so bad as it might be?--Yes. But if so, this was the proper
+period for stopping further supplies; for both the population and the
+treatment would be improved by such a measure.
+
+But he would show again the futility of the, argument of his honourable
+friend. He himself had admitted that it was in the power of the
+colonists to correct the various abuses, by which the Negro population
+was restrained. But, they could not do this without improving the
+condition of their slaves; without making them approximate towards the
+rank of citizens; without giving them some little interest in their
+labour, which would occasion them to work with the energy of men. But
+now the Assembly of Grenada had themselves stated, "that though the
+Negroes were allowed the afternoons of only one day in every week they
+would do as much work in that afternoon, when employed for their own
+benefit as in the whole day, when employed in their masters' service."
+Now, after, this, confession, the House might burn all his calculations
+relative to the Negro population; for, if it had not yet quite reached
+the desirable state which he had pointed out, this confession had
+proved, that further supplies were not wanted. A Negro, if he worked for
+himself, could do double work. By an improvement then in the mode of
+labour, the work in the islands could be doubled. But if so, what would
+become of the argument of his honourable friend? for then only half the
+number of the present labourers were necessary.
+
+He would now try this argument of expediency by other considerations.
+The best informed writers on the subject had told us, that the purchase
+of new Negroes was injurious to the, planters. But if this statement was
+just, would not the abolition be beneficial to them? That it would, was
+the opinion of Mr. Long, their own historian. "If the Slave Trade," says
+he, "was prohibited for four or five years, it would enable them to
+retrieve their affairs by preventing them from running into debt, either
+by renting or purchasing Negroes." To this acknowledgment he would add a
+fact from the evidence, which was, that a North American province, by
+such a prohibition alone for a few years from being deeply plunged in
+debt, had become independent, rich, and flourishing.
+
+The next consideration was the danger, to which the islands, were
+exposed from the newly imported slaves. Mr. Long, with a view of
+preventing insurrections, had advised, that a duty equal to a
+prohibition, might be laid on the importation of Coromantine slaves.
+After noticing one insurrection, which happened through their means, he
+speaks of another in the following year, in which thirty-three
+Coromantines, "most of whom had been newly imported, murdered and
+wounded no less than nineteen Whites in the, space of an hour." To the
+authority of Mr Long he would add the recorded opinion of a committee of
+the House of Assembly of Jamaica, which was appointed to inquire into
+the best means of preventing future insurrections. The committee
+reported, that "the rebellion had originated, like most others, with the
+Coromantines," and they proposed that a bill should he brought in for
+laying a higher duty on the importation of these particular Negroes,
+which should operate as a prohibition. But the danger was not confined
+to the introduction of Coromantines. Mr. Long accounts for the frequent
+insurrections in Jamaica from the greatness of its general importations.
+"In two years and a-half," says he, "twenty-seven thousand Negroes have
+been imported.--No wonder that we have rebellions!" Surely then, when
+his honourable friend spoke of the calamities of St. Domingo, and of
+similar dangers impending over our own islands, it ill became him to be
+the person to cry out for further importations! It ill became him to
+charge upon the abolitionists the crime of stirring up insurrections,
+who only recommended what the legislature of Jamaica itself had laid
+down in a time of danger with an avowed view to prevent them. It was,
+indeed, a great satisfaction to himself, that among the many arguments
+for prohibiting the Slave Trade, the security of our West Indian
+possessions against internal commotions, as well as foreign enemies, was
+among the most prominent and forcible. And here he would ask his
+honourable friend, whether in this part of the argument he did not see
+reason for immediate abolition. Why should we any longer persist in
+introducing those latent principles of conflagration, which, if they
+should once burst forth, might annihilate the industry of a hundred
+years? which might throw the planters back a whole century in their
+profits, in their cultivation, and in their progress towards the
+emancipation of their slaves? It was our duty to vote that the abolition
+of the Slave Trade should be immediate, and not to leave it to he knew
+not what future time or contingency.
+
+Having now done with the argument of expediency, he would consider the
+proposition of his right honourable friend Mr. Dundas; that, on account
+of some patrimonial rights of the West Indians, the prohibition of the
+Slave Trade would be an invasion of their legal inheritance. He would
+first observe, that, if this argument was worth anything, it applied
+just as much to gradual as to immediate abolition. He had no doubt,
+that, at whatever period we should say the trade should cease; it would
+be equally, set up; for it would certainly be just as good an argument
+against the measure in seventy years hence, as it was against it now. It
+implied also, that Parliament had no right to stop the importations: but
+had this detestable traffic received such a sanction, as placed it more
+out of the jurisdiction of the legislature for ever after, than any
+other branch of our trade? In what a situation did the proposition of
+his honourable friend place the legislature of Great Britain! It was
+scarcely possible to lay a duty on anyone article, which might not in
+someway affect the property of individuals. But if the laws respecting
+the Slave Trade implied a contract for its perpetual continuance, the
+House could never regulate any other of the branches of our national
+commerce.
+
+But any contract for the promotion of this trade must, in his opinion,
+have been void from the beginning: for if it was an outrage upon
+justice, and only another name for fraud, robbery, and murder, what
+pledge could devolve upon the legislature to incur the obligation of
+becoming principals in the commission of such enormities by sanctioning
+their continuance?
+
+But he would appeal to the acts themselves. That of 23 George II. c. 31,
+was the one upon which the greatest stress was laid. How would the House
+be surprised to hear that the very outrages committed in the prosecution
+of this trade had been forbidden by that act! "No master of a ship
+trading to Africa," says the act, "shall by fraud, force, or violence,
+or by any indirect practice whatever, take on board or carry away from
+that coast any Negro, or native of that country, or commit any violence
+on the natives, to the prejudice of the said trade; and every person so
+offending, shall for every such offence forfeit one hundred pounds." But
+the whole trade had been demonstrated to be a system of fraud, force,
+and violence; and therefore the contract was daily violated, under which
+the Parliament allowed it to continue.
+
+But why had the trade ever been permitted at all? The preamble of the
+act would show: "Whereas the trade to and from Africa is very
+advantageous to Great Britain, and necessary for supplying the
+Plantations and Colonies thereunto belonging with a sufficient number of
+Negroes at reasonable rates, and for that purpose the said trade should
+be carried on."--Here then we might see what the Parliament had in view,
+when it passed this act. But no one of the occasions, on which it
+grounded its proceedings, now existed. He would plead, then, the act
+itself as an argument for the abolition. If it had been proved that,
+instead of being very advantageous to Great Britain, it was the most
+destructive to her interests--that it was the ruin of her seamen--that
+it stopped the extension of her manufactures;--if it had been proved, in
+the second place, that it was not now necessary for the supply of our
+Plantations with Negroes;--if it had been further established, that it
+was from the beginning contrary to the first principles of justice, and
+consequently that a pledge for its continuance, had one been attempted
+to be given, must have been absolutely void--where in this act of
+parliament was the contract to be found, by which Britain was bound, as
+she was said to be, never to listen to her own true interests and to the
+cries of the natives of Africa? Was it not clear, that all argument,
+founded on the supposed pledge of Parliament, made against those who
+employed it?
+
+But if we were not bound by existing laws to the support of this trade,
+we were doubly criminal in pursuing it; for why ought it to be abolished
+at all? Because it was incurable injustice. Africa was the ground on
+which he chiefly rested; and there it was, that his two honourable
+friends, one of whom had proposed gradual abolition, and the other
+regulation, did not carry their principles, to their full extent. Both
+had confessed the trade to be a moral evil. How much stronger, then, was
+the argument, for immediate than for gradual abolition! If on the ground
+of a moral evil it was to be abolished at last, why ought it not now?
+Why was injustice to be suffered to remain for a single hour? He knew of
+no evil, which ever had existed, nor could he imagine any to exist,
+worse than the tearing of eighty thousand persons annually from their
+native land, by a combination of the most civilized nations, in the most
+enlightened quarter of the globe; but more, especially by that nation,
+which called herself the most free and the most happy of them all.
+
+He would now notice the objection, that other nations would not give up
+the Slave Trade, if we were to renounce it. But if the trade were
+stained, but by a thousandth part of the criminality which he and
+others, after a thorough investigation of the subject, charged upon it,
+the House ought immediately to vote for its abolition. This miserable
+argument, if persevered in, would be an eternal bar to the annihilation
+of the evil. How was it ever to be eradicated, if every nation was thus
+prudentially to wait till the concurrence of all the world should be
+obtained! But it applied a thousand times more strongly in a contrary
+way. How much more justly would other nations say, "Great Britain, free
+as she is, just and honourable as she is, not only has not abolished,
+but has refused to abolish, the Slave Trade. She has investigated it
+well. Her senate has deliberated upon it. It is plain, then, that she
+sees no guilt in it." With this argument we should furnish the other
+nations of Europe, if we were again to refuse to put an end to this
+cruel traffic; and we should have from henceforth not only to answer for
+our own, but for their crimes also. Already we have suffered one year to
+pass away; and now, when the question was renewed, not only had this
+wretched argument been revived, but a proposition had been made for the
+gradual abolition of the trade. He knew, indeed, the difficulty of
+reforming long established abuses; but in the present case, by proposing
+some other period than the present, by prescribing some condition, by
+waiting for some contingencies, perhaps till we obtained the general
+concurrence of Europe, (A concurrence which he believe never yet took
+place at the commencement of any one improvement in policy or morals,)
+he fared that this most enormous evil would never be redressed. Was it
+not folly to wait for the stream to run down before we crossed the bed
+of its channel? Alas! we might wait for ever. The river would still flow
+on. We should be no nearer the object which we had in view, so long as
+the step, which could alone bring us to it was not taken.
+
+He would now proceed to the civilization of Africa; and, as his eye had
+just glanced upon a West Indian law in the evidence upon the table, he
+would begin with an argument, which the sight of it had suggested to
+him. This argument had been ably answered in the course of the evening;
+but he would view it in yet another light. It had been said, that the
+savage disposition of the Africans rendered the prospect of their
+civilization almost hopeless. This argument was indeed of long standing;
+but, last year, it had been supported upon a new ground. Captain Frazer
+had stated in his evidence, that a boy had been put to death at Cabenda,
+because there were those who refused to purchase him as a slave. This
+single story was deemed by him, and had been considered by others, as a
+sufficient proof of the barbarity of the Africans, and of the inutility
+of abolishing the Slave Trade. But they, who had used this fact, had
+suppressed several circumstances relating to it. It appeared, on
+questioning Captain Frazer afterward, that this boy had previously run
+away from his master three several times; that the master had to pay his
+value, according to the custom of the country, every time he was brought
+back; and that partly from anger at the boy for running away so
+frequently, and partly to prevent a repetition of the same expense, he
+determined to destroy him. Such was the explanation of the signal
+instance, which was to fix barbarity on all Africa, as it came out in
+the cross-examination of Captain Frazer. That this African master was
+unenlightened and barbarous, he freely admitted; but what would an
+enlightened and civilized West Indian have done in a similar case? He
+would quote the law, passed in the West Indies in 1722, which he had
+just cast his eye upon in the book of evidence, by which law this very
+same crime of running away was by the legislature, of an island, by the
+grave and deliberate sentence of an enlightened legislature, punished
+with death; and this, not in the case only of the third offence, but
+even in the very first instance. It was enacted, "That, if any Negro or
+other slave should withdraw himself from his master for the term of six
+months, or any slave, who was absent, should not return within that
+time, every such person should suffer death." There was also another
+West Indian law, by which every Negro was armed against his fellow
+Negro, for he was authorized to kill every runaway slave; and he had
+even a reward held out to him for so doing. Let the House now contrast
+the two cases. Let them ask themselves which of the two exhibited the
+greater barbarity; and whether they could possibly vote for the
+continuance of the Slave Trade, upon the principle that the Africans had
+shown themselves to be a race of incorrigible barbarians?
+
+Something like an opposite argument, but with a like view, had been
+maintained by others on this subject. It had been said, in justification
+of the trade, that the Africans had derived some little civilization
+from their intercourse with us. Yes; we had given them just enough of
+the forms of justice to enable them to add the pretext of legal trials
+to their other modes of perpetrating the most atrocious crimes. We had
+given them just enough of European improvements, to enable them the more
+effectually to turn Africa into a ravaged wilderness. Alas! alas! we had
+carried on a trade with them from this civilized and enlightened
+country, which, instead of diffusing knowledge, had been a check to
+every laudable pursuit. We had carried a poison into their country,
+which spread its contagious effects from one end of it to the other, and
+which penetrated to its very centre, corrupting every part to which it
+reached. We had there subverted the whole order of nature; we had
+aggravated every natural barbarity, and furnished to every man motives
+for committing, under the name of trade, acts of perpetual hostility and
+perfidy against his neighbour. Thus had the perversion of British
+commerce carried misery instead of happiness to one whole quarter of the
+globe. False to the very principles of trade, misguided in our policy,
+unmindful of our duty, what almost irreparable mischief had we done to
+that continent! How should we hope to obtain forgiveness from heaven, if
+we refused to use those means which the mercy of Providence had still
+reserved to us for wiping away the guilt and shame, with which we were
+now covered? If we refused even this degree of compensation, how
+aggravated would be our guilt! Should we delay, then, to repair these
+incalculable injuries? We ought to count the days, nay the very hours,
+which intervened to delay the accomplishment of such a work.
+
+On this great subject, the civilization of Africa, which, he confessed,
+was near his heart, he would yet add a few observations. And first he
+would say, that the present deplorable state of that country, especially
+when we reflected that her chief calamities were to be ascribed to us,
+called for our generous aid, rather than justified any despair, on our
+part, of her recovery, and still less a repetition of our injuries. On
+what ground of theory or history did we act, when we supposed she was
+never to be reclaimed? There was a time, which it might be now fit to
+call to remembrance, when human sacrifices, and even this very practice
+of the Slave Trade existed in our own island. Slaves, as we may read in
+HENRY's _History of Great Britain_, were formerly an established article
+of our exports. "Great numbers," he says, "were exported like cattle
+from the British coast, and were to be seen exposed for sale in the
+Roman markets."--"Adultery, witchcraft, and debt," says the same
+historian, "were probably some of the chief sources of supplying the
+Roman market with British slaves--prisoners taken in war were added to
+the number--there might be also among them some unfortunate gamesters,
+who, after having lost all their goods, at length staked themselves,
+their wives, and their children." Now every one of these sources of
+slavery had been stated to be at this hour a source of slavery in
+Africa. If these practices, therefore, were to be admitted as proofs of
+the natural incapacity of its inhabitants, why might they not have been
+applied to ancient Britain? Why might not then some Roman senator,
+pointing to British barbarians, have predicted with equal boldness, that
+these were a people who were destined never to be free; who were without
+the understanding necessary for the attainment of useful arts; depressed
+by the hand of nature below the level of the human species, and created
+to form a supply of slaves for the rest of the world? But, happily,
+since that time, notwithstanding what would then have been the justness
+of these predictions, we had emerged from barbarism. We were now raised
+to a situation which exhibited a striking contrast to every circumstance
+by which a Roman might have characterized us, and by which we now
+characterized Africa. There was indeed one thing wanting to complete the
+contrast, and to clear us altogether from the imputation of acting even
+to this hour as barbarians; for we continued to this hour a barbarous
+traffic in slaves; we continued it even yet, in spite of all our great
+pretensions. We were once as obscure among the nations of the earth, as
+savage in our manners, as debased in our morals, as degraded in our
+understandings, as these unhappy Africans. But in the lapse of a long
+series of years, by a progression slow, and for a time almost
+imperceptible, we had become rich in a variety of acquirements. We were
+favoured above measure in the gifts of Providence, we were unrivalled in
+commerce, pre-eminent in arts, foremost in the pursuits of philosophy
+and science, and established in all the blessings of civil society; we
+were in the possession of peace, of liberty, and of happiness; we were
+under the guidance of a mild and a beneficent religion; and we were
+protected by impartial laws and the purest administration of justice; we
+were living under a system of government, which our own happy experience
+led us to pronounce the best and wisest, and which had become the
+admiration of the World. From all these blessings we must for ever have
+been excluded, had there been any truth in those principles, which some
+had not hesitated to lay down as applicable to the case of Africa; and
+we should have been at this moment little superior, either in morals,
+knowledge, or refinement, to the rude inhabitants of that continent.
+
+If then we felt that this perpetual confinement in the fetters of brutal
+ignorance would have been the greatest calamity which could have
+befallen us; if we viewed with gratitude the contrast between our
+present and our former situation; if we shuddered to think of the misery
+which would still have overwhelmed us, had our country continued to the
+present times, through some cruel policy, to be the mart for slaves to
+the more civilized nations of the World;--God forbid that we should any
+longer subject Africa to the same dreadful scourge, and exclude the
+sight of knowledge from her coasts, which had reached every other
+quarter of the globe!
+
+He trusted we should no longer continue this commerce, and that we
+should no longer consider ourselves as conferring too great a boon on
+the natives of Africa in restoring them to the rank of human beings, He
+trusted we should not think ourselves too liberal, if, by abolishing the
+Slave Trade, we gave them the same common chance of civilization with
+other parts of the World. If we listened to the voice of reason and duty
+this night, some of us might live to see a reverse of that picture, from
+which we how turned our eyes with shame. We might live to behold the
+natives engaged in the calm occupations of industry, and in the pursuit
+of a just commerce. We might behold the beams of science and philosophy
+breaking in upon their land, which at some happy period in still later
+times might blaze with full lustre; and joining their influence to that
+of pure religion, might illuminate and invigorate the most distant
+extremities of that immense continent. Then might we hope, that even
+Africa (though last of all the quarters of the globe) should enjoy at
+length, in the evening of her days, those blessings, which had descended
+so plentifully upon us in a much earlier period of the world. Then also
+would Europe, participating in her improvement and prosperity, receive
+an ample recompense for the tardy kindness (if kindness it could be
+called) of no longer hindering her from extricating herself out of the
+darkness, which, in other more fortunate regions, had been so much more
+speedily dispelled.
+
+
+      --------Nos primus equis Oriens afflavit anhelis;
+      Illic sera rubens accendit lumina Vesper.
+
+
+Then might be applied to Africa those words, originally used indeed with
+a different view:
+
+
+      His demum exactis------
+      Devenere locos laetos, et amoena vireta
+      Fortunatorum nemorum, sedesque beatas;
+      Largior hic campos aether et lumine vestit
+      Purpureo.
+
+
+It was in this view--it was as an atonement for our long and cruel
+injustice towards Africa, that the measure proposed by his honourable
+friend Mr. Wilberforce most forcibly recommended itself to his mind. The
+great and happy change to be expected in the state of her inhabitants
+was, of all the various benefits of the abolition, in his estimation the
+most extensive and important. He should vote against the adjournment;
+and he should also oppose every proposition which tended either to
+prevent, or even to postpone for an hour, the total abolition of the
+Slave Trade.
+
+Mr. Pitt having concluded his speech (at about six in the morning), Sir
+William Dolben, the chairman, proposed the following questions:--The
+first was on the motion of Mr. Jenkinson, "that the chairman do now
+leave the chair." This was lost by a majority of two hundred and
+thirty-four to eighty-seven. The second was on the motion of Mr. Dundas,
+"that the abolition should be, gradual;" when the votes for gradual
+exceeded those for immediate by one hundred and ninety-three to one
+hundred and twenty-five. He then put the amended question, that "it was
+the opinion of the committee that the trade ought to be gradually
+abolished."  The committee having divided again, the votes for a gradual
+abolition were, two hundred and thirty, and those against any abolition
+were eighty-five.
+
+After this debate, the committee for the abolition of the Slave Trade
+held a meeting. They voted their thanks to Mr. Wilberforce for his
+motion, and to Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, and those other members of the House
+who had supported it. They resolved, also, that the House of Commons,
+having determined that the Slave Trade ought to be gradually abolished,
+had by that decision manifested their opinion, that it was cruel and
+unjust. They resolved, also, that a gradual abolition of it was not an
+adequate remedy for its injustice and cruelty; neither could it be
+deemed a compliance with the general wishes of the people, as expressed
+in their numerous and urgent petitions to Parliament; and they resolved
+lastly, that the interval in which the Slave Trade should be permitted
+to continue, afforded a prospect of redoubled cruelties and ravages on
+the coast of Africa; and that it imposed therefore an additional
+obligation on every friend to the cause to use all constitutional means
+to obtain its immediate abolition.
+
+At a subsequent meeting they voted their thanks to the right honourable
+Lord Muncaster, for the able support he had given to the great object of
+their institution by his _Historical Sketches of the Slave Trade, and of
+its Effects in Africa_; addressed to the people of Great Britain; and
+they elected the Rev. Richard Gifford, and the Rev. Thomas Gisborne,
+honorary and corresponding members; the first on account of his
+excellent sermon before-mentioned, and other services; and the latter on
+account of his truly Christian and seasonable pamphlet, entitled
+_Remarks on the Late Decision of the House of Commons, respecting the
+Abolition of the Slave Trade_.
+
+On the 23rd of April, the House of Commons resolved itself into a
+committee of the whole House, to consider the subject again; and Mr.
+Beaufoy was put into the chair.
+
+Mr. Dundas, upon whom the task of introducing a bill for the gradual
+abolition of the Slave Trade now devolved, rose to offer the outlines of
+a plan for that purpose. He intended, he said, immediately to abolish
+that part of the trade, by which we supplied foreigners with slaves. The
+other part of it was to be continued seven years from the 1st of January
+next. He grounded the necessity of its continuance till this time upon
+the documents of the Negro population in the different islands. In many
+of these, slaves were imported, but they were re-exported nearly in
+equal numbers. Now, all these he considered to be in a state to go on
+without future supplies from Africa. Jamaica and the ceded islands
+retained almost all the slaves imported into them. This he considered as
+a proof that these had not attained the same desirable state; and it was
+therefore necessary, that the trade should be continued longer on this
+account. It was his intention, however, to provide proper punishments,
+while it lasted, for abuses both in Africa and in the Middle Passage, He
+would take care, as far as he could, that none but young slaves should
+be brought from the Coast of Africa. He would encourage establishments
+there for a new species of traffic. Foreign nations should be invited to
+concur in the abolition. He should propose a praedial rather than a
+personal service for the West Indies, and institutions, by which the
+slaves there should be instructed in religious duties. He concluded by
+reading several resolutions, which he would leave to the future
+consideration of the House.
+
+Mr. Pitt then rose. He deprecated the resolutions altogether. He denied
+also the inferences which Mr. Dundas had drawn from the West Indian
+documents relative to the Negro population. He had looked aver his own
+calculations from the same documents again and again, and he would
+submit them, with all their data, if it should be necessary, to the
+House.
+
+Mr. Wilberforce and Mr. Fox held the same language. They contended also,
+that Mr. Dundas had now proved, a thousand times more strongly than
+ever, the necessity of immediate abolition. All the resolutions he had
+read were operative against his own reasoning. The latter observed, that
+the Slave-traders were in future only to be allowed to steal innocent
+children from their disconsolate parents.
+
+After a few observations by Lord Sheffield, Mr. Drake, Colonel Tarleton,
+and Mr. Rolle, the House adjourned.
+
+On the 25th of April it resumed the consideration of the subject. Mr.
+Dundas then went over his former resolutions, and concluded by moving,
+"that it should not be lawful to import any African Negroes into any
+British colonies, in ships owned or navigated by British subjects, at
+any time after the 1st of January, 1800."
+
+Lord Mornington (now Marquis Wellesley) rose to propose an amendment. He
+congratulated his countrymen, that the Slave Trade had received its
+death-wound. This traffic was founded in injustice; and between right
+and wrong there could be no compromise. Africa was not to be sacrificed
+to the apparent good of the West Indies. He would not repeat those
+enormities out of the evidence, which had made such a deep impression
+upon the House. It had been resolved, that the trade should be
+abolished. The question then was, how long they were to persevere in the
+crime of its continuance? One had said, that they might be unjust for
+ten years longer; another, only till the beginning of the next century.
+But this diversity of opinion had proceeded from an erroneous statement
+of Mr. Dundas against the clear and irrefragable calculations of Mr.
+Pitt. The former had argued, that, because Jamaica and the ceded islands
+had retained almost all the slaves which had been, imported into them,
+they were therefore not yet in a situation to support their population
+without further supplies from Africa. But the truth was, that the
+slaves, so retained, were kept, not to maintain the population there,
+but to clear new land. Now the House had determined, that the trade was
+not to be continued for this purpose. The population, therefore, in the
+islands was sufficient to continue the ordinary cultivation of them.
+
+He deprecated the idea, that the Slave Trade had been so sanctioned by
+the acts of former Parliaments, that the present could make no
+alteration in it. Had not the House altered the import of foreign sugar
+into our islands? a measure, which at the time affected the property of
+many. Had they not prohibited the exports of provisions from America to
+the same quarter; Again, as to compacts, had the Africans ever been
+parties to these? It was rather curious also, when King James the Second
+gave a charter to the slave-trader, that he should have given them a
+right to all the south of Africa, and authority over every person born
+therein! But, by doing this, it was clear that he gave them a right
+which he never possessed himself. After many other observations, he
+concluded by moving, "that the year 1793 be substituted in the place of
+the year 1800."
+
+In the course of the debate, which followed, Mr. Burdon stated his
+conviction of the necessity of immediate abolition; but he would support
+the amendment, as the shortest of the terms proposed.
+
+Mr. Robert Thornton would support it also, as the only choice left him.
+He dared not accede to a motion, by which we were to continue for seven
+years to imbrue our hands in innocent blood.
+
+Mr. Ryder (now Earl of Harrowby) would not support the trade for one
+moment, if he could avoid it. He could not hold a balance with gold in
+one scale, and blood in the other.
+
+Mr. William Smith exposed the wickedness of restricting the trade to
+certain ages. The original motion, he said, would only operate as a
+transfer of cruelty from the aged and the guilty to the young and the
+innocent. He entreated the House to consider, whether, if it related to
+their own children, any one of them would vote for it.
+
+Mr. Windham had hitherto felt a reluctance to speaking, not from the
+abstruseness, but from the simplicity, of the subject; but he could not
+longer be silent, when he observed those arguments of policy creeping
+again out of their lurking-places, which had fled before eloquence and
+truth. The House had clearly given up the policy of the question. They
+had been determined by the justice of it. Why were they then to be
+troubled again with arguments of this nature? These, if admitted, would
+go to the subversion of all public as well as private morality. Nations
+were as much bound as individuals to a system of morals, though a breach
+in the former could not be so easily punished. In private life morality
+took pretty good care of itself. It was a kind of retail article, in
+which the returns were speedy. If a man broke open his neighbour's
+house, he would feel the consequences.  There was an ally of virtue, who
+rendered it the interest of individuals to be moral, and he was called
+the executioner. But as such punishment did not always await us in our
+national concerns, we should substitute honour as the guardian of our
+national conduct. He hoped the West Indians would consider the character
+of the mother-country, and the obligations to national as well as
+individual justice. He hoped, also, they would consider the sufferings,
+which they occasioned both in Africa, in the passage, and in the West
+Indies. In the passage, indeed, no one was capable of describing them.
+The section of the slave-ship; however, made up the deficiency of
+language, and did away all necessity of argument, on this subject.
+Disease there had to struggle with the new affliction of chains and
+punishment. At one view were the irksomeness of a goal, and the miseries
+of an hospital; so that the holds of these vessels put him in mind of
+the regions of the damned. The trade, he said, ought immediately to be
+abolished. On a comparison of the probable consequences of the abolition
+of it, he saw on one side only doubtful contingencies, but on the other
+shame and disgrace.
+
+Sir James Johnstone contended for the immediate abolition of the trade.
+He had introduced the plough into his own plantation in the West Indies,
+and he found the land produced more sugar than when cultivated in the
+ordinary way by slaves. Even for the sake of the planters, he hoped the
+abolition would not be long delayed.
+
+Mr. Dundas replied: after which a division took place. The number of
+votes in favour of the original motion were one hundred and fifty-eight,
+and for the amendment one hundred and nine.
+
+On the 27th of April the House resumed the subject. Mr. Dundas moved, as
+before, that the Slave Trade should cease in the year 1800; upon which
+Lord Mornington moved, that the year 1795 should be substituted for the
+latter period.
+
+In the course of the debate, which followed, Mr. Hubbard said, that he
+had voted against the abolition, when the year 1793 was proposed; but he
+thought that, if it were not to take place till 1795, sufficient time
+would be allowed the planters. He would support this amendment; and he
+congratulated the House on the prospect of the final triumph of truth,
+humanity, and justice.
+
+Mr. Addington preferred the year 1796 to the year 1795.
+
+Mr. Alderman Watson considered the abolition in 1796, to be as
+destructive as if it were immediate.
+
+A division having taken place, the number of votes in favour of the
+original motion were one hundred and sixty-one, and in favour of Lord
+Mornington's amendment for the year 1795, one hundred and twenty-one.
+Sir Edward Knatchbull, however, seeing that there was a disposition in
+the House to bring the matter to a conclusion, and that a middle line
+would be preferred, moved that the year 1796 should be substituted for
+this year 1800. Upon this the House divided again; when there appeared
+for the original motion only one hundred and thirty-two, but for the
+amendment one hundred and fifty-one.
+
+The gradual abolition having been now finally agreed upon for the year
+1796, a committee was named, which carried the resolution to the Lords.
+
+On the 8th of May, the Lords were summoned to consider it; Lord
+Stormont, after having spoken for some time, moved, that they should
+hear evidence upon it. Lord Grenville opposed the motion on account of
+the delay, which would arise from an examination of the witnesses by the
+House at large: but he moved that such witnesses should be examined by a
+committee of the House. Upon this a debate ensued, and afterwards a
+division; when the original motion was carried by sixty-three against
+thirty-six.
+
+On the 15th of May, the Lords met again. Evidence was then ordered to be
+summoned in behalf of those interested in the continuance of the trade.
+At length it was introduced; but on the 5th of June, when only seven
+persons had been examined, a motion was made and carried, that the
+further examinations should be postponed to the next session.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+Continuation from July 1792 to July 1793.--Author travels round the
+kingdom again.--Motion to renew the resolution of the last year in the
+Commons; motion lost.--New motion in the Commons to abolish the
+foreign Slave Trade; motion lost.--Proceedings of the Lords.
+
+
+The resolution adopted by the Commons, that the trade should cease in
+1796, was a matter of great joy to many; and several, in consequence of
+it, returned to the use of sugar. The committee, however, for the
+abolition did not view it in the same favourable light. They considered
+it as a political manoeuvre to frustrate the accomplishment of the
+object. But the circumstance, which gave them the most concern, was the
+resolution of the Lords to hear evidence. It was impossible now to say,
+when the trade would cease, the witnesses in behalf of the merchants and
+planters, had obtained possession of the ground; and they might, keep
+it, if they chose, even till the year 1800, to throw light upon a
+measure which was to be adopted in 1796. The committee found too, that
+they had again the laborious task before them of finding out new persons
+to give testimony in behalf of their cause; for some of their former
+witnesses were dead, and others were out of the kingdom; and unless they
+replaced these, there would be no probability of making out that strong
+case in the Lords, which they had established in the Commons. It
+devolved therefore upon me once more to travel for this purpose: but as
+I was then in too weak a state to bear as much fatigue as formerly, Dr.
+Dickson relieved me, by taking one part of the tour, namely, that to
+Scotland, upon himself.
+
+These journeys we performed with considerable success; during which, the
+committee elected Mr. Joseph Townsend of Baltimore, in Maryland, an
+honorary and corresponding member.
+
+Parliament having met, Mr. Wilberforce, in February 1793, moved, that
+the House resolve itself into a committee of the whole House on Thursday
+next, to consider of the circumstances of the Slave Trade. This motion
+was opposed by Sir William Yonge, who moved, that this day six months
+should be substituted for Thursday next. A debate ensued: of this,
+however, as well as of several which followed. I shall give no account;
+as it would be tedious to the reader to hear a repetition of the same
+arguments. Suffice it to say, that the motion was lost by a majority of
+sixty-one to fifty-three.
+
+This sudden refusal of the House of Commons to renew their own vote of
+the former year, gave great uneasiness to the friends of the cause. Mr.
+Wilberforce, however, resolved that the session should not pass without
+an attempt to promote it in another form; and accordingly, on the 14th
+of May, he moved for leave to bring in a bill to abolish that part of
+the Slave Trade, by which the British merchants supplied foreigners with
+slaves. This motion was opposed like the former; but was carried by a
+majority of seven. The bill was then brought in; and it passed its first
+and second reading with little opposition; but on the 5th of June,
+notwithstanding the eloquence of Mr. Pitt and of Mr. Fox, and the very
+able speeches of Mr. Francis, Mr. Courtenay, and others, it was lost by
+a majority of thirty-one to twenty-nine.
+
+In the interval between these motions, the question experienced in the
+Lords considerable opposition. The Duke of Clarence moved that the House
+should not proceed in the consideration of the Slave Trade till after
+the Easter recess. The Earl of Abingdon was still more hostile
+afterwards. He deprecated the new philosophy. It was as full of mischief
+as the Box of Pandora. The doctrine of the abolition of the Slave Trade
+was a species of it; and he concluded by moving, that all further
+consideration of the subject be postponed. To the epithets, then
+bestowed upon the abolitionists by this nobleman, the Duke of Clarence
+added those of fanatics and hypocrites, among whom he included Mr.
+Wilberforce by name. All the other Lords, however, who were present,
+manifested such a dislike to the sentiments of the Earl of Abingdon,
+that he withdrew his motion.
+
+After this, the hearing of evidence on the resolution of the House of
+Commons was resumed; and seven persons were examined before the close of
+the session.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+--Continuation from July 1793 to July 1794.--Author travels round the
+kingdom again.--Motion to abolish the foreign Slave Trade renewed in
+the Commons; and carried; but lost in the Lords; further proceedings
+there.--Author, on account of his declining health, obliged to retire
+from the cause.
+
+
+The committee for the abolition could not view the proceedings of both
+Houses of Parliament on this subject during the year 1793, without being
+alarmed for the fate of their question. The only two sources of hope,
+which they could discover, were in the disposition then manifested by
+the Peers, as to the conduct of the Earl of Abingdon, and in their
+determination to proceed in the hearing of evidence. The latter
+circumstance indeed was the more favourable, as the resolution, upon
+which the witnesses were to be examined, had not been renewed by the
+Commons. These considerations, however, afforded no solid ground for the
+mind to rest upon. They only broke in upon it, like faint gleams of
+sunshine, for a moment, and then were gone. In this situation, the
+committee could only console themselves by the reflection, that they had
+done their duty. In looking, however, to their future services, one
+thing, and only one, seemed practicable; and this was necessary; namely,
+to complete the new body of evidence, which they had endeavoured to form
+in the preceding year. The determination to do this rendered another
+journey on my part indispensable; and I undertook it, broken down, as my
+constitution then was, beginning it in September 1793, and completing it
+in February 1794.
+
+Mr. Wilberforce, in this interval, had digested his plan of operations;
+and accordingly, early in the session of 1794, he asked leave to renew
+his former bill, to abolish that part of the trade, by means of which
+British merchants supplied foreigners with slaves. This request was
+opposed by Sir William Yonge; but it was granted; on a division of the
+House, by a majority of sixty-three to forty votes.
+
+When the bill was brought in, it was opposed by the same member; upon
+which the House divided; and there appeared for Sir William Yonge's
+amendment thirty-eight votes, but against it fifty-six.
+
+On a motion for the recommitment of the bill, Lord Sheffield divided the
+House, against whose motion there was a majority of forty-two. And, on
+the third reading of it, it was opposed again; but it was at length
+carried.
+
+The speakers against the bill were: Sir William Yonge, Lord Sheffield,
+Colonel Tarleton, Alderman Newnham and Messrs; Payne, Este, Lechaiere,
+Cawthorae, Jenkinson, and Dent. Those who spoke in favour of it were:
+Messrs. Pitt, Fox, William Smith, Whitbread, Francis, Burdon, Vaughan,
+Barham, and Serjeants Watson and Adair.
+
+While the foreign Slave-bill was thus passing through its stages in the
+Commons, Dr. Horsley, Bishop of Rochester, who saw no end to the
+examinations, while the witnesses were to be examined at the bar of the
+House of Lords, moved, that they should be taken in future before a
+committee above-stairs. Dr. Porteus, Bishop of London, and the Lords
+Guildford, Stanhope, and Grenville, supported this motion. But the Lord
+Chancellor Thurlow, aided by the Duke of Clarence, and by the Lords
+Mansfield, Hay, Abingdon, and others, negatived it by a majority of
+twenty-eight.
+
+At length the bill itself was ushered into the House of Lords. On
+reading it a second time, it was opposed by the Duke of Clarence, Lord
+Abingdon, and others. Lord Grenville and the Bishop of Rochester
+declined supporting it. They alleged as a reason, that they conceived
+the introduction of it to have been improper, pending the inquiry on the
+general subject of the Slave Trade. This declaration brought up the
+Lords Stanhope and Lauderdale, who charged them with inconsistency as
+professed friends of the cause. At length the bill was lost. During
+these discussions the examination of the witnesses was resumed by the
+Lords; but only two of them were heard in this session[A].
+
+[Footnote A: After this the examinations wholly dropped in the House of
+Lords.]
+
+After this decision the question was in a desperate state; for if the
+Commons would not renew their own resolution, and the Lords would not
+abolish the foreign part of the Slave-trade, what hope was there of
+success? It was obvious too, that in the former House, Mr. Pitt and Mr.
+Dundas voted against each other. In the latter, the Lord Chancellor
+Thurlow opposed every motion in favour of the cause. The committee
+therefore were reduced to this;--either they must exert themselves
+without hope, or they must wait till some change should take place in
+their favour. As far as I myself was concerned, all exertion was then
+over. The nervous system was almost shattered to pieces. Both my memory
+and my hearing failed me. Sudden dizzinesses seized my head. A confused
+singing in the ears followed me, wherever I went. On going to bed the
+very, stairs seemed to dance up and down under me, so that, misplacing
+my foot, I sometimes fell. Talking too, if it continued but half an
+hour, exhausted me, so that profuse perspirations followed; and the same
+effect was produced even by an active exertion of the mind for the like
+time. These disorders had been brought on by degrees in consequence of
+the severe labours necessarily attached to the promotion of the cause.
+For seven years I had a correspondence to maintain with four hundred
+persons with my own hand. I had some book or other annually to write in
+behalf of the cause. In this time I had travelled more than thirty-five
+thousand miles in search of evidence, and a great part of these journeys
+in the night. All this time my mind had been on the stretch. It had been
+bent too to this one subject; for I had not even leisure to attend to my
+own concerns. The various instances of barbarity, which had come
+successively to my knowledge within this period, had vexed, harassed,
+and afflicted it. The wound which these had produced, was rendered still
+deeper by those cruel disappointments before related, which arose from
+the reiterated refusal of persons to give their testimony, after I had
+travelled hundreds of miles in quest of them. But the severest stroke
+was that inflicted by the persecution, begun and pursued by persons
+interested in the continuance of the trade, of such witnesses as had
+been examined against them; and whom, on account of their dependent
+situation in life, it was most easy to oppress. As I had been the means
+of bringing these forward on these occasions, they naturally came to me,
+when thus persecuted, as the author of their miseries and their ruin.
+From their supplications and wants it would have been ungenerous and
+ungrateful to have fled[A]. These different circumstances, by acting
+together, had at length brought me into the situation just mentioned;
+and I was therefore obliged, though very reluctantly, to be borne out of
+the field, where I had placed the great honour and glory of my life.
+
+[Footnote A: The late Mr. Whitbread, to whom one day in deep affliction
+on this account I related accidentally a circumstance of this kind,
+generously undertook, in order to make my mind easy upon the subject, to
+make good all injuries, which should in future arise to individuals from
+such persecution; and he repaired these, at different times, at a
+considerable expense. I feel it a duty to divulge this circumstance, out
+of respect to the memory of one of the best of men, and of one, whom, if
+the history of his life were written, it would appear to have been an
+extraordinary honour to the country to have produced.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+Continuation from July 1794 to July 1799.--Various motions within this
+period.
+
+
+I purpose, though it may seem abrupt after the division which has
+hitherto been made of the contents of this volume, to throw the events
+of the next five years into one chapter.
+
+Mr. Wilberforce and the members of the committee, whose constitutions
+had not suffered like my own, were still left; and they determined to
+persevere in the promotion of their great object as long as their health
+and their faculties permitted them. The former, accordingly, in the
+month of February, 1795, moved in the House of Commons for leave to
+bring in a bill for the abolition of the Slave Trade. This motion was
+then necessary, if, according to the resolution of that House, the Slave
+Trade was to cease in 1796. It was opposed, however, by Sir William
+Yonge, and unfortunately lost by a majority of seventy-eight to
+fifty-seven.
+
+In the year 1796, Mr. Wilberforce renewed his efforts in the Commons. He
+asked leave to bring in a bill for the abolition of the Slave Trade, but
+in a limited time. The motion was opposed as before; but on a division,
+there were for it ninety-three, and against it only sixty-seven.
+
+The bill having been brought in, was opposed in its second reading; but
+it was carried through it by a majority of sixty-four to thirty-one.
+
+In a future stage it was opposed again; but it triumphed by a majority
+of seventy-six to thirty-one. Mr. Elliott was then put into the chair.
+Several clauses were adopted; and the first of March, 1797, was fixed
+for the abolition of the Trade: but in the next stage of it, after a
+long speech from Mr. Dundas, it was lost by a majority of seventy-four
+against seventy.
+
+Mr. Francis, who had made a brilliant speech in the last debate,
+considering that nothing effectual had been yet done on this great
+question, and wishing that a practical beginning might be made, brought
+forward soon afterwards, a motion relative to the improvement of the
+condition of the slaves in the West Indies. This, after a short debate,
+was negatived without a division. Mr. William Smith also moved an
+address to His Majesty, that he would be pleased to give directions to
+lay before the House copies of the several acts relative to regulations
+in behalf of the slaves, passed by the different colonial assemblies
+since the year 1788. This motion was adopted by the House. Thus passed
+away the session of 1796.
+
+In the year 1797, while Mr. Wilberforce was deliberating upon the best
+measure for the advancement of the cause, Mr. C. Ellis came forward with
+a new motion. He began by declaring, that he agreed with the
+abolitionists as to their object; but he differed with them as to the
+mode of attaining It. The Slave Trade he condemned as a cruel and
+pernicious system; but, as it had become an inveterate evil, he feared
+it could not be done away all at once, without injury to the interests
+of numerous individuals, and even to the Negroes themselves. He
+concluded by moving an address to His Majesty, humbly requesting, that
+he would give directions to the governors of the West Indian islands, to
+recommend it to the colonial assemblies to adopt such measures as might
+appear to them best calculated to ameliorate the condition of the
+Negroes, and thereby to remove gradually the Slave Trade; and likewise
+to assure His Majesty of the readiness of this House to concur in any
+measure to accelerate this desirable object; This motion was seconded by
+Mr. Barham, It was opposed, however, by Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Pitt, and
+others; but was at length carried by a majority of ninety-nine to
+sixty-three.
+
+In the year 1798, Mr. Wilberforce asked leave to renew his former bill,
+to abolish the Slave Trade within a limited time. He was supported by
+Mr. Canning, Mr. Hobhouse, Sir Robert Buxton, Mr. Bouverie, and others.
+Messrs. Sewell, Bryan Edwards, Henniker, and C. Ellis, took the opposite
+side of the question. Mr. Ellis, however, observed, that he had no
+objection to restricting the Slave Trade to plantations already begun in
+the colonies; and Mr. Barham professed; himself a friend to the
+abolition, if it; could be accomplished in a reasonable way. On a
+division, there appeared to be for Mr. Wilberforce's motion
+eighty-three, but against it eighty-seven.
+
+In the year 1799 Mr. Wilberforce, undismayed by these different
+disappointments, renewed his motion. Colonel M. Wood, Mr. Petrie, and
+others, among whom were Mr. Windham and Mr. Dundas, opposed it. Mr.
+Pitt, Mr. Fox, Mr. W. Smith, Sir William Dolben, Sir R. Milbank, Mr.
+Hobhouse, and Mr. Canning, supported it. Sir R. Milbank contended, that
+modifications of a system, fundamentally wrong, ought not to be
+tolerated by the legislature of a free nation, Mr. Hobhouse said, that
+nothing could be so nefarious as this traffic in blood. It was unjust in
+its principles it was cruel in its practice: it admitted of no
+regulation whatever. The abolition of it was called for equally, by
+morality and sound policy, Mr. Canning exposed the folly of Mr. Dundas,
+who bad said, that as Parliament had, in the year 1787, left the
+abolition to the colonial assemblies, it ought not to be taken out of
+their hands. This great event, he observed, could only be accomplished
+in two ways; either by these assemblies, or by the Parliament of
+England. Now the members of the Assembly of Jamaica had professed that
+they would never abolish the trade. Was it not, therefore, idle to rely
+upon them for the accomplishment of it? He then took a very
+comprehensive view of the arguments, which had been offered in the
+course of the debate, and was severe upon the planters in the House,
+who, he said, had brought into familiar use certain expressions, with no
+other view than to throw a veil over their odious system. Among these
+was, "their right to import labourers." But never was the word
+"labourers" so prostituted, as when it was used for slaves. Never was
+the word "right" so prostituted, not even when "the rights of man" were
+talked of; as when the right to trade in man's blood was asserted, by
+the members of an enlightened assembly. Never was the right of importing
+these labourers worse defended than when the antiquity, of the Slave
+Trade, and its foundation on the ancient acts of parliament, were
+brought forward in its support. We had been cautioned not to lay our
+unhallowed hands on the ancient institution of the Slave Trade; nor to
+subvert a fabric, raised by the wisdom of our ancestors, and consecrated
+by a lapse of ages. But on what principles did we usually respect the
+institutions of antiquity? We respected them, when we saw some shadow of
+departed worth and usefulness; or some memorial of what had been
+creditable to mankind. But was this the case with the Slave Trade? Had
+it begun in principles of justice or national honour, which the changes
+of the world alone had impaired? Had it to plead former services and
+glories in behalf of its present disgrace? In looking at it we saw
+nothing but crimes and sufferings from the beginning--nothing but what
+wounded and convulsed our feelings--nothing but what excited indignation
+and horror. It had not even to plead what could often be said in favour
+of the most unjustifiable wars. Though conquest had sometimes originated
+in ambition, and in the worst of motives, yet the conquerors and the
+conquered were sometimes blended afterwards into one people; so that a
+system of common interest arose out of former differences. But where was
+the analogy of the eases? Was it only at the outset that we could trace
+violence and injustice on the part of the Slave Trade? Were the
+oppressors and the oppressed so reconciled, that enmities ultimately
+ceased? No. Was it reasonable then to urge a prescriptive right, not to
+the fruits of an ancient and forgotten evil, but to a series of new
+violences; to a chain of fresh enormities; to cruelties continually
+repeated; and of which every instance inflicted a fresh calamity, and
+constituted a separate and substantial crime?
+
+The debate being over, the House divided; when it appeared that there
+were for Mr. Wilberforce's motion seventy-four, but against it
+eighty-two.
+
+The motion for the general abolition of the Slave Trade having been thus
+lost again in the Commons, a new motion was made there soon after, by
+Mr. Henry Thornton, on the same subject. The prosecution of this
+traffic, on certain parts of the coast of Africa, had become so
+injurious to the new settlement at Sierra Leone, that not only its
+commercial prospects were but its safety endangered. Mr. Thornton,
+therefore brought in a bill to confine the Slave Trade within certain
+limits. But even this bill, though it had for its object only to free a
+portion of the coast from the ravages of this traffic, was opposed by
+Mr. Gascoyne, Dent, and others. Petitions also were presented against
+it. At length, after two divisions, on the first of which there were
+thirty-two votes to twenty-seven, and on the second thirty-eight to
+twenty-two, it passed through all its stages.
+
+When it was introduced into the Lords the petitions were renewed against
+it. Delay also was interposed to its progress by the examination of
+witnesses. It was not till the fifth of July that the matter was brought
+to issue. The opponents of the bill, at that time, were the Duke of
+Clarence, Lord Westmoreland, Lord Thurlow, and the Lords Douglas and
+Hay, the two latter being Earls of Morton and Kinnoul, in Scotland. The
+supporters of it were Lord Grenville, who introduced it, Lord
+Loughborough, Lord Holland, and Dr. Horsley, Bishop of Rochester: the
+latter was peculiarly eloquent. He began his speech, by arraigning the
+injustice and impolicy of the trade:--"injustice," he said, "which no
+considerations of policy could extenuate; impolicy, equal in degree to
+its injustice."
+
+He well knew that the advocates for the Slave Trade had endeavoured to
+represent the project for abolition, as a branch of jacobinism; but they
+who supported it proceeded upon no visionary motives of equality, or of
+the imprescriptible rights of man. They strenuously upheld the
+gradations of civil society: but they did, indeed, affirm that these
+gradations were, both ways, both as they ascended and as they descended,
+limited. There was an existence of power, to which no good king would
+aspire; and there was an extreme condition of subjection, to which man
+could not be degraded without injustice; and this they would maintain,
+was the condition of the African, who was torn away into slavery.
+
+He then explained the limits of that portion of Africa, which the bill
+intended to set apart as sacred to peace and liberty. He showed that
+this was but one-third of the coast; and, therefore, that two-thirds
+were yet left for the diabolical speculations of the slave merchants. He
+expressed his surprise that such witnesses, as those against the bill,
+should have been introduced at all: he affirmed that their oaths were
+falsified by their own log-books; and that, from their own accounts, the
+very healthiest of their vessels were little better than pestilential
+gaols. Mr. Robert Hume, one of these witnesses, had made a certain
+voyage: he had made it in thirty-three days: he had shipped two hundred
+and sixty-five slaves, and he had lost twenty-three of them. If he had
+gone on losing his slaves, all of whom were under twenty-five years of
+age, at this rate, it was obvious, that he would have lost two hundred
+and fifty-three of them, if his passage had lasted for a year. Now, in
+London only, seventeen would have died of that age, out of one thousand
+within the latter period.
+
+After having exposed the other voyages of Mr. Hume in a similar manner,
+he entered into a commendation of the views of the Sierra Leone company,
+and then defended the character of the Africans in their own country, as
+exhibited in the Travels of Mr. Mungo Park. He made a judicious
+discrimination with respect to slavery, as it existed among them: he
+showed that this slavery was analogous to that of the heroic and
+patriarchal ages, and contrasted it with the West Indian in an able
+manner.
+
+He adverted, lastly, to what had fallen from the learned counsel, who
+had supported the petitions of the slave-merchants. One of them had put
+this question to their Lordships, "If the Slave Trade were as wicked as
+it had been represented, why was there no prohibition of it in the Holy
+Scriptures?" He then entered into a full defence of the Scriptures on
+this ground, which he concluded by declaring, that, as St. Paul had
+coupled men-stealers with murderers, he had condemned the Slave Trade in
+one of its most productive modes, and generally in all its modes. And
+here it is worthy of remark, that the word used by the apostle on this
+occasion, and which has been translated men-stealers, should have been
+rendered slave traders. This was obvious from the scholiast of
+Aristophanes, whom he quoted. It was clear, therefore, that the Slave
+Trade, if murder was forbidden, had been literally forbidden also.
+
+The learned counsel, too, had admonished their lordships, to beware how
+they adopted the visionary projects of fanatics. He did not know in what
+direction this shaft was shot; and he cared not. It did not concern him.
+With the highest reverence for the religion of the land, with the
+firmest conviction of its truth, and with the deepest sense of the
+importance Of its doctrines, he was proudly conscious, that the general
+shape and fashion of his life bore nothing of the stamp of fanaticism.
+But he begged leave, in his turn, to address a word of serious
+exhortation to their lordships. He exhorted them to beware how they were
+persuaded to bury, under the opprobrious name of fanaticism, the regard
+which they owed to the great duties of mercy and justice, for the
+neglect of which (if they should neglect them) they would be answerable
+at that tribunal, where no prevarication of witnesses could misinform
+the judge; and where no subtlety of an advocate, miscalling the names of
+things, putting evil for good and good for evil, could mislead his
+judgment.
+
+At length the debate ended: when the bill was lost by a majority of
+sixty-eight to sixty-one, including personal votes and proxies.
+
+I cannot conclude this chapter without offering a few remarks. And,
+first, I may observe, as the substance of the debates has not been given
+for the period which it contains, that Mr. Wilberforce, upon whom too
+much praise cannot be bestowed for his perseverance from year to year,
+amidst the disheartening circumstances which attended his efforts,
+brought every new argument to which either the discovery of new light,
+or the events of the times, produced. I may observe also, in justice to
+the memories of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox, that there was no debate within
+this period, in which they did not take a part; and in which they did
+not irradiate others from the profusion of their own light; and thirdly,
+that in consequence of the efforts of the three, conjoined with those of
+others, the great cause of the abolition was secretly gaining ground.
+Many members who were not connected with the trade, but who had yet
+hitherto supported it, were on the point of conversion. Though the
+question had oscillated backwards and forwards, so that an ordinary
+spectator could have discovered no gleam of hope at these times, nothing
+is more certain, than that the powerful eloquence then displayed had
+smoothed the resistance to it, had shortened its vibrations, and had
+prepared it for a state of rest.
+
+With respect to the West-Indians themselves, some of them began to see
+through the mists of prejudice, which had covered them. In the year
+1794, when the bill for the abolition of the foreign Slave Trade was
+introduced, Mr. Vaughan and Mr. Barham supported it. They called upon
+the planters in the House to give way to humanity, where their own
+interests could not be affected by their submission. This, indeed, may
+be said to have been no mighty thing; but it was a frank confession of
+the injustice of the Slave Trade, and the beginning of the change which
+followed, both with respect to themselves and others.
+
+With respect to the old friends of the cause, it is with regret I
+mention, that it lost the support of Mr. Windham within this period; and
+this regret is increased by the consideration, that he went off on the
+avowed plea of expediency against moral rectitude; a doctrine, which, at
+least upon this subject, he had reprobated for ten years. It was,
+however, some consolation, as far as talents were concerned, (for there
+can be none for the loss of virtuous feeling,) that Mr. Canning, a new
+member, should have so ably supplied his place.
+
+Of the gradual abolitionists, whom we have always considered as the most
+dangerous enemies of the cause, Mr. Jenkinson (afterwards Earl of
+Liverpool), Mr. Addington (subsequently Lord Sidmouth), and Mr. Dundas
+(afterwards Lord Melville), continued their opposition during all this
+time. Of the first two I shall say nothing at present; but I cannot pass
+over the conduct of the latter. He was the first person, as we have
+seen, to propose the gradual abolition of the Slave Trade; and he fixed
+a time for its cessation on the 1st of January, 1800. His sincerity on
+this occasion was doubted by Mr. Fox at the very outset; for he
+immediately rose and said, that "something so mischievous had come out,
+something so like a foundation had been laid for preserving, not only
+for years to come, but for anything he knew, for ever, this detestable
+traffic, that he felt it his duty immediately to deprecate all such
+delusions upon the country." Mr. Pitt, who spoke soon afterwards, in
+reply to an argument advanced by Mr. Dundas, maintained, that "at
+whatever period the House should say that the Slave Trade should
+actually cease, this defence would equally be set up; for it would be
+just as good an argument in seventy years hence, as it was against the
+abolition then." And these remarks Mr. Dundas verified in a singular
+manner within this period: for in the year 1796, when his own bill, as
+amended in the Commons, was to take place, he was one of the most
+strenuous opposers of it; and in the year 1799, when in point of
+consistency it devolved upon him to propose it to the House, in order
+that the trade might cease on the 1st of January, 1800, (which was the
+time of his own original choice, or a time unfettered by parliamentary
+amendment,) he was the chief instrument of throwing out Mr.
+Wilberforce's bill, which promised even a longer period to its
+continuance: so that it is obvious, that there was no time, within his
+own limits, when the abolition would have suited him, notwithstanding
+his profession, "that he had always been a warm advocate for the
+measure."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+Continuation from July 1799 to July 1805.--Various motions within this
+period.
+
+
+The question had now been brought forward in almost every possible way,
+and yet had been eventually lost. The total and immediate abolition had
+been attempted; and then the gradual. The gradual again had been tried
+for the year 1798, then for 1795, and then for 1796, at which period it
+was decreed, but never allowed to be executed. An Abolition of a part of
+the trade, as it related to the supply of foreigners with slaves, was
+the next measure proposed; and when this failed, the abolition of
+another part of it, as it related to the making of a certain portion of
+the coast of Africa sacred to liberty, was attempted; but this failed
+also. Mr. Wilberforce therefore thought it prudent, not to press the
+abolition as a mere annual measure, but to allow members time to digest
+the eloquence, which had been bestowed upon it for the last five years,
+and to wait till some new circumstances should favour its introduction.
+Accordingly he allowed the years 1800, 1801, 1802, and 1803, to pass
+over without any further parliamentary notice than the moving for
+certain papers; during which he took an opportunity of assuring the
+House, that he had not grown cool in the cause, but that he would
+agitate it in a future session.
+
+In the year 1804, which was fixed upon for renewed exertion, the
+committee for the abolition of the Slave Trade elected James Stephen,
+Zachary Macaulay, Henry Brougham, Esqrs., and William Phillips, into
+their own body. Four other members, also, Robert Grant, and John
+Thornton, Esqrs., and William Manser and William Allen, were afterwards
+added to the list. Among, the reasons for fixing upon this year, one may
+be assigned, namely, that the Irish members, in consequence of the union
+which had taken place between the two countries, had then all taken
+their seats in the House of Commons; and that most of them were friendly
+to the cause.
+
+This being the situation of things, Mr. Wilberforce, on the 30th of
+March, asked leave to renew his bill for the abolition of the Slave
+Trade within a limited time, Mr. Fuller opposed the motion. A debate
+ensued. Colonel Tarleton, Mr. Devaynes, Mr. Addington, and Mr. Manning
+spoke against it, however, notwithstanding his connection with the West
+Indies, said he would support it, if an indemnification were offered to
+the planters, in case any actual loss should accompany the measure.
+
+Sir William Geary questioned the propriety of immediate abolition.
+
+Sir Robert Buxton, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, and Mr. Barbara spoke in favour of
+the motion.
+
+Mr. William Smith rose, when the latter had seated himself, and
+complimented him on this change of sentiment, so honourable to him,
+inasmuch as he had espoused the cause of humanity against his supposed
+interest as a planter. Mr. Leigh said that he would not tolerate such a
+traffic for a moment. All the feelings of nature revolted at it. Lord de
+Blaquiere observed, "it was the first time the question had been
+proposed to Irishmen as legislators. He believed it would be supported
+by most of them. As to the people of Ireland, he could pledge himself
+that they were hostile to this barbarous traffic." An amendment having
+been proposed by Mr. Manning, a division took place upon it, when leave
+was given to bring in the bill, by a majority of one hundred and
+twenty-four to forty-nine.
+
+On the 7th of June, when the second reading of the bill was moved, it
+was opposed by Sir W. Yonge, Dr. Laurence, Mr. C. Brook, Mr. Dent, and
+others. Among these Lord Castlereagh professed himself a friend to the
+abolition of the trade, but he differed as to the mode. Sir J.
+Wrottesley approved of the principle of the bill, but would oppose it in
+some of its details. Mr. Windham allowed the justice, but differed as to
+the expediency, of the measure. Mr. Deverell professed himself to have
+been a friend to it; but he had then changed his mind. Sir Laurence
+Parsons wished to see a plan for the gradual extinction of the trade.
+Lord Temple affirmed that the bill would seal the death-warrant of every
+White inhabitant of the islands. The second reading was supported by Sir
+Ralph Milbank, Messrs. Pitt, Fox, William Smith, Whitbread, Francis,
+Barham, and Grenfell, and Sir John Newport. Mr. Grenfell observed, that
+he could not give a silent vote, when the character of the country was
+concerned. When the question of the abolition first came before the
+public, he was a warm friend to it; and from that day to this he had
+cherished the same feelings. He assured Mr. Wilberforce of his constant
+support. Sir John Newport stated that the Irish nation took a virtuous
+interest in this noble cause. He ridiculed the idea that the trade and
+manufactures of the country would suffer by the measure in
+contemplation; but, even if they should suffer, he would oppose it.
+"Fiat justitia, ruat coelura," Upon a division, there appeared for the
+second reading one hundred, and against it forty-two.
+
+On the 12th of June, when a motion was made to go into a committee upon
+the bill, it was opposed by Messrs. Fuller, C. Brook, C. Ellis, Dent,
+Deverell, and Manning: and it was supported by Sir Robert Buxton, Mr.
+Barham, and the Hon. J.S. Cocks. The latter condemned the imprudence of
+the planters. Instead of profiting by the discussions, which had taken
+place, and making wise provisions against the great event of the
+abolition, which would sooner or later take place, they had only thought
+of new stratagems to defeat it. He declared his abhorrence of the trade,
+which he considered to be a national disgrace. The House divided: when
+there were seventy-nine for the motion, and against it, twenty.
+
+On the 27th of June the bill was opposed in its last stage by Sir W.
+Young, Messrs. Dickenson, Mr. Rose, Addington, and Dent.; and supported
+by: Messrs. Pitt, W. Smith, Francis, and Barham; when it was carried by
+a majority of sixty-nine to thirty-six. It was then taken up to the
+Lords; but on a motion of Lord Hawkesbury, then a member of that House,
+the discussion of it was postponed to the next year.
+
+The session being ended, the committee for the abolition of the Slave
+Trade, increased its number, by the election of the Right Honourable
+Lord Teignmouth, Dr. Dickson, and Wilson Birkbeek, as members.
+
+In the year 1805, Mr. Wilberforce renewed his motion of the former year.
+Colonel Tarleton, Sir William Yonge, Mr. Puller, and Mr. Gascoyne
+opposed it. Leave, however, was given him to introduce his bill.
+
+On the second reading of it, a serious opposition took place; and an
+amendment was moved for postponing it till that day six months. The
+amendment was opposed by Mr. Fox and Mr. Huddlestone. The latter could
+not help lifting his voice against this monstrous traffic in the sinews
+and blood of man, the toleration of which had so long been the disgrace
+of the British legislature. He did not charge the enormous guilt
+resulting from it upon the nation at large; for the nation had washed
+its hands of it by the numerous petitions it had sent against it; and it
+had since been a matter of astonishment to all Christendom, how the
+constitutional guardians of British freedom should have sanctioned
+elsewhere the greatest system of cruelty and oppression in the world.
+
+He said that a curse attended this trade even in the mode of defending
+it. By a certain fatality, none but the vilest arguments were brought
+forward, which corrupted the very persons who used them. Every one of
+these was built on the narrow ground of interest--of pecuniary
+profit--of sordid gain--in opposition to every high consideration--to
+every motive that had reference to humanity, justice, and religion--or
+to that great principle which comprehended them all. Place only before
+the most determined advocate of this odious traffic the exact image of
+himself in the garb and harness of a slave, dragged and whipped about
+like a beast; place this image also before him, and paint it as that of
+one without a ray of hope to cheer him; and you would extort from him
+the reluctant confession, that he would not endure for an hour the
+misery to which he condemned his fellow-man for life. How dared he,
+then, to use this selfish plea of interest against the voice of the
+generous sympathies of his nature? But even upon this narrow ground, the
+advocates for the traffic had been defeated. If the unhallowed argument
+of expediency was worth anything when opposed to moral rectitude, or if
+it were to supercede precepts of Christianity, where was a man to stop,
+on what was he to draw? For anything he knew, it might be physically
+true, that human blood was the best manure for the land; but who ought
+to shed it on that account? True expediency, however, was, where it ever
+would be found, on the side of that system which was most merciful and
+just. He asked how it happened, that sugar could be imported cheaper
+from the East Indies than from the West, notwithstanding the vast
+difference of the length of the voyages, but on account of the impolicy
+of slavery; or that it was made in the former case by the industry of
+free men, and in the latter by the languid drudgery of slaves.
+
+As he had had occasion to advert to the Eastern part of the world, he
+would make an observation upon an argument, which had been collected
+from that quarter. The condition of the Negroes in the West Indies had
+been lately compared with that of the Hindoos. But he would observe that
+the Hindoo, miserable as his hovel was, had sources of pride and
+happiness, to which not only the West Indian slave, but even his master,
+was a stranger. He was to be sure a peasant; and his industry was
+subservient to the gratifications of an European lord; but he was, in
+his own belief, vastly superior to him. He viewed him as one of the
+lowest cast. He would not on any consideration eat from the same plate.
+He would not suffer his son to marry the daughter of his master, even if
+she could bring him all the West Indies as her portion. He would
+observe, too, that the Hindoo peasant drank his water from his native
+well; that, if his meal were scanty, he received it from the hand of
+her, who was most dear to him; that, when he laboured, he laboured for
+her and his offspring. His daily task being finished, he reposed with
+his family. No retrospect of the happiness of former days, compared with
+existing misery, disturbed his slumber, nor horrid dreams occasioned him
+to wake in agony at the dawn of day. No barbarous sounds of cracking
+whips reminded him, that with the form and image of a man his destiny
+was that of the beast of the field. Let the advocates for the bloody
+traffic state what they had to set off on their side of the question
+against the comforts and independence of the man, with whom they
+compared the slave.
+
+The amendment was supported by Sir William Yonge, Sir William Pulteney,
+Colonel Tarleton, Messrs. Gascoyne, C. Brook, and Hiley Addington. On
+dividing the House upon it, there appeared for it seventy-seven, but
+against it only seventy.
+
+This loss of the question, after it had been carried in the last year by
+so great a majority, being quite unexpected, was a matter of severe
+disappointment; and might have discouraged the friends of the cause in
+this infancy of their renewed efforts, if they had not discovered the
+reason of its failure. After due consideration it appeared, that no
+fewer than nine members, who had never been absent once in sixteen years
+when it was agitated, gave way to engagements on the day of the motion,
+from a belief that it was safe. It appeared also, that out of the great
+number of Irish members, who supported it in the former year, only nine
+were in the House, when it was lost. It appeared also that, previously
+to this event, a canvass, more importunate than had heard of on any
+former occasion, had been made among the latter by those interested in
+the continuance of the trade. Many of these, unacquainted with the
+detail of the subject, like the English members, admitted the dismal
+representations, which were then made to them. The desire, of doing good
+on the one hand, and the fear of doing injury on the other, perplexed
+them; and in this dubious state they absented themselves at the time
+mentioned.
+
+The causes of the failure having been found accidental, and capable of a
+remedy, it was resolved that an attempt should be made immediately in
+the House in a new form. Lord Henry Petty signified his intention of
+bringing in a bill for the abolition of the foreign part of the Slave
+Trade; but the impeachment of Lord Melville, and other weighty matters
+coming on, the notice was not acted upon in that session.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+--Continuation from July 1805 to July 1806--Author returns to his duty
+in the committee--Travels again round the kingdom--Death of Mr.
+Pitt--His character, as it related to the question--Motion for the
+abolition of the foreign Slave-Trade--Resolution to take measures for
+the total abolition of it--Address to the King to negotiate with
+foreign powers for their concurrence in it--Motion to prevent any new
+vessel going into the trade--these carried through both Houses of
+Parliament.
+
+
+It was now almost certain, to the inexpressible joy of the committee,
+that the cause, with proper vigilance, could be carried in the next
+session in the House of Commons. It became them therefore to prepare to
+support it. In adverting to measures for this purpose, it occurred to
+them, that the House of Lords, if the question should be then carried to
+them from the Commons, might insist upon hearing evidence on the general
+subject. But, alas, even the body of witnesses, which had been last
+collected, was broken by death or dispersion! It was therefore to be
+formed again. In this situation it devolved upon me, as I had now
+returned to the committee after an absence of nine years, to take
+another journey for this purpose.
+
+This journey I performed with extraordinary success. In the course of it
+I had also much satisfaction on another account. I found the old friends
+of the cause still faithful to it. It was remarkable, however, that the
+youth of the rising generation knew but little about the question. For
+the last eight or nine years the committee had not circulated any books;
+and the debates in the Commons during that time had not furnished them
+with the means of an adequate knowledge concerning it. When, however, I
+conversed with these, as I travelled along, I discovered a profound
+attention to what I said; an earnest desire to know more of the subject;
+and a generous warmth in favour of the injured Africans, which I foresaw
+could soon be turned into enthusiasm. Hence I perceived that the cause
+furnished us with endless sources of rallying: and that the ardour which
+we had seen with so much admiration in former years, could be easily
+renewed.
+
+I had scarcely finished my journey, when Mr. Pitt died. This event took
+place in January 1806, I shall stop therefore to make a few observations
+upon his character, as it related to this cause. This I feel myself
+bound in justice to do, because his sincerity towards it has been
+generally questioned.
+
+The way, in which Mr. Pitt became acquainted with this question, has
+already been explained. A few doubts having been removed, when it was
+first started, he professed himself a friend to the abolition. The first
+proof, which he gave of his friendship to it is known but to few; but it
+is, nevertheless, true, that so early as in 1788, he occasioned a
+communication to be made to the French government, in which he
+recommended an union of the two countries for the promotion of the great
+measure. This proposition seemed to be then new and strange to the Court
+of France; and the answer was not favourable.
+
+From this time his efforts were reduced within the boundaries of his own
+power. As far, however, as he had scope, he exerted them. If we look at
+him in his parliamentary capacity, it must be acknowledged by all, that
+he took an active, strenuous, and consistent part, and this year after
+year, by which he realized his professions. In my own private
+communications with him, which were frequent, he never failed to give
+proofs of a similar disposition. I had always free access to him. I had
+no previous note or letter to write for admission. Whatever papers I
+wanted, he ordered. He exhibited also in his conversation with me on
+these occasions marks of a more than ordinary interest in the welfare of
+the cause. Among the subjects, which were then started, there was one,
+which was always near his heart. This was the civilization of Africa. He
+looked upon this great work as a debt due to that continent for the many
+injuries we had inflicted upon it: and had the abolition succeeded
+sooner, as in the infancy of his exertions he had hoped, I know he had a
+plan, suited no doubt to the capaciousness of his own mind, for such
+establishments in Africa, as he conceived would promote in due time this
+important end.
+
+I believe it will be said, notwithstanding what I have advanced, that if
+Mr. Pitt had exerted himself as the Minister of this country in behalf
+of the abolition, he could have carried it. This brings the matter to an
+issue; for unquestionably the charge of insincerity, as it related to
+this great question, arose from the mistaken notion, that, as his
+measures in Parliament were supported by great majorities, he could do
+as he pleased there. But they who hold this opinion, must be informed,
+that there were great difficulties, against which he had to struggle on
+this subject! The Lord Chancellor Thurlow ran counter to his wishes
+almost at the very outset. Lord Liverpool, and Mr. Dundas, did the same.
+Thus, to go no further, three of the most powerful members of the
+cabinet were in direct opposition to him. The abolition then, amidst
+this difference of opinion, could never become a cabinet measure; but if
+so, then all his parliamentary efforts in this case wanted their usual
+authority, and he could only exert his influence as a private man[A].
+
+[Footnote A: This he did with great effect on one or two occasions. On
+the motion of Mr. Cawthorne in 1791, the cause hung as it were by a
+thread; and would have failed that day, to my knowledge, but for his
+seasonable exertions.]
+
+But a difficulty, still more insuperable, presented itself, in an
+occurrence which took place in the year 1791, but which is much too
+delicate to be mentioned. The explanation of it, however, would convince
+the reader, that all the efforts of Mr. Pitt from that day were rendered
+useless, I mean, as to bringing the question, as a Minister of State, to
+a favourable issue.
+
+But though Mr. Pitt did not carry this great question, he was yet one of
+the greatest supporters of it; He fostered it in its infancy. If, in his
+public situation, he had then set his face against it, where would have
+been our hope? He upheld it also in its childhood; and though in this
+state of its existence it did not gain from his protection all the
+strength Which it was expected it would have acquired, he yet kept it
+from falling, till his successors, in whose administration a greater
+number Of favourable circumstances concurred to give it vigour, brought
+it to triumphant maturity.
+
+Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox, having been called to the head of the
+executive government on the death of Mr. Pitt, the cause was ushered
+into Parliament under new auspices. In a former year His Majesty had
+issued a proclamation by which British merchants were forbidden (with
+certain defined exceptions) to import slaves into the colonies, which
+had been conquered by the British arms in the course of the war. This
+circumstance afforded an opportunity of trying the question in the House
+of Commons with the greatest hope of success. Accordingly Sir A. Pigott,
+the Attorney-General, as an officer of the crown, brought in a bill on
+the thirty-first of March 1806, the first object of which was, to give
+effect to the proclamation now mentioned. The second was, to prohibit
+British subjects from being engaged in importing slaves into the
+colonies of any foreign power whether hostile or neutral. And the third
+was, to prohibit British subjects and British capital from being
+employed in carrying on the Slave Trade in foreign ships; and also to
+prevent the outfit of foreign ships from British ports.
+
+Sir A. Pigott, on the introduction of this bill, made an appropriate
+speech. The bill was supported by Mr. Fox, Sir William Yonge, Mr. Brook,
+and Mr. Bagwell; but opposed by Generals Tarleton and Gascoyne, Mr.
+Rose, Sir Robert Peel, and Sir Charles Price. On the third reading, a
+division being called for, there appeared for it thirty-five, and
+against it only thirteen.
+
+On the 7th of May it was introduced into the Lords. The supporters of it
+there were, the Duke of Gloucester, Lord Grenville, the Bishops of
+London and St. Asaph, the Earl of Buckinghamshire and the Lords Holland,
+Lauderdale, Auckland, Sidmouth, and Ellenborough. The opposers were, the
+Dukes of Clarence and Sussex, the Marquis of Sligo, the Earl of
+Westmoreland, and the Lords Eldon and Sheffield. At length a division
+took place, when there appeared to be in favour of it thirty-three, and
+against it eighteen.
+
+During the discussions, to which this bill gave birth, Lord Grenville
+and Mr. Fox declared in substance, in their respective Houses of
+Parliament, that they felt the question of the Slave Trade to be one,
+which involved the dearest interests of humanity, and the most urgent
+claims of policy, justice, and religion; and that, should they succeed
+in affecting its abolition, they would regard that success as entailing
+more true glory on their administration, and more honour and advantage
+on their country, than any other measure, in which they could he
+engaged. The bill having passed, (the first, which dismembered this
+cruel trade,) it was thought proper to follow it up in a prudent manner;
+and, as there was not then time in the advanced period of the session to
+bring in another for the total extinction of it, to move a resolution,
+by which both Houses should record those principles, on which the
+propriety of the latter measure was founded. It was judged also
+expedient that Mr. Fox, as the Prime Minister in the House of Commons,
+should introduce it there.
+
+On the 10th of June Mr. Fox rose. He began by saying that the motion,
+with which he should conclude, would tend in its consequences to effect
+the total abolition of the Slave Trade; and he confessed that, since he
+had sat in that House (a period of between thirty and forty years), if
+he had done nothing else, but had only been instrumental in carrying
+through this measure, he should think his life well spent; and should
+retire quite satisfied, that he had not lived in vain.
+
+In adverting to the principle of the trade, he noticed some strong
+expressions of Mr. Burke concerning it. "To deal in human flesh and
+blood," said that great man, "or to deal, not in the labour of men, but
+in men themselves, was to devour the root, instead of enjoying the fruit
+of human diligence."
+
+Mr. Fox then took a view of the opinions of different members of the
+House on this great question; and showed that, though many had opposed
+the abolition, all but two or three, among whom were the members for
+Liverpool, had confessed, that the trade ought to be done away. He then
+went over the different resolutions of the House on the subject, and
+concluded from thence, that they were bound to support his motion.
+
+He combated the argument, that the abolition would ruin the West Indian
+islands. In doing this he paid a handsome compliment to the memory of
+Mr. Pitt, whose speech upon this particular point was, he said, the most
+powerful and convincing of any he had ever heard. Indeed they, who had
+not; heard it, could have no notion of it. It was a speech, of which he
+would say with the Roman author, reciting the words of the Athenian
+orator, "Quid esset, si ipsum audivissetis!" It was a speech no less
+remarkable for splendid eloquence, than for solid sense and convincing
+reason; supported by calculations founded on facts, and conclusions
+drawn from premises, as correctly as if they had been mathematical
+propositions; all tending to prove that, instead of the West Indian
+plantations suffering an injury, they would derive a material benefit by
+the abolition of the Slave Trade. He then called upon the friends of
+this great man to show their respect for his memory by their votes; and
+he concluded with moving, "that this House, considering the African
+Slave Trade to be contrary to the principles of justice, humanity, and
+policy, will, with all practicable expedition, take effectual measures
+for the abolition of the said trade, in such a manner, and at such a
+period, as may be deemed advisable."
+
+Sir Ralph Milbank rose, and seconded the motion.
+
+General Tarleton rose next. He deprecated the abolition, on account of
+the effect which it would have on the trade and revenue of the country.
+
+Mr. Francis said the merchants of Liverpool were at liberty to ask for
+compensation; but he, for one, would never grant it for the loss of a
+trade, which had been declared to be contrary to humanity and justice.
+As an uniform friend to this great cause, he wished Mr. Fox had not
+introduced a resolution, but a real bill for the abolition of the Slave
+Trade. He believed that both Houses were then disposed to do it away. He
+wished the golden opportunity might not be lost.
+
+Lord Castlereagh thought it a proposition, on which no one could
+entertain a doubt, that the Slave Trade was a great evil in itself; and
+that it was the duty and policy of Parliament to extirpate it; but he
+did not think the means offered were adequate to the end proposed. The
+abolition, as a political question, was a difficult one. The year 1796
+had been once fixed upon by the House, as the period when the trade was
+to cease; but, when the time arrived, the resolution was not executed.
+This was a proof, either that the House did not wish for the event, or
+that they judged it impracticable. It would be impossible, he said, to
+get other nations to concur in the measure; and even if they were to
+concur, it could not be effected. We might restrain the subjects of the
+parent-state from following the trade; but we could not those in our
+colonies. A hundred frauds would be committed by these, which we could
+not detect. He did not mean by this, that the evil was to go on for
+ever. Had a wise plan been proposed at first, it might have been
+half-cured by this time. The present resolution would do no good. It was
+vague, indefinite, and unintelligible. Such resolutions were only the
+slave-merchants' harvests. They would go for more slaves than usual in
+the interim. He should have advised a system of duties on fresh
+importations of slaves, progressively increasing to a certain extent;
+and that the amount of these duties should be given to the planters, as
+a bounty to encourage the Negro population upon their estates. Nothing
+could be done, unless we went hand in hand with the latter. But he
+should deliver himself more fully on this subject, when any thing
+specific should be brought forward in the shape of a bill.
+
+Sir S. Romilly, the Solicitor-General, differed from Lord Castlereagh;
+for he thought the resolution of Mr. Fox was very simple and
+intelligible. If there was a proposition vague and indefinite, it was
+that advanced by the noble lord, of a system of duties on fresh
+importations, rising progressively, and this under the patronage and
+co-operation of the planters. Who could measure the space between the
+present time and the abolition of the trade, if that measure were to
+depend upon the approbation of the colonies.
+
+The cruelty and injustice of the Slave Trade had been established by
+evidence beyond a doubt. It had been shown to be carried on by rapine,
+robbery, and murder; by fomenting and encouraging wars; by false
+accusations; and imaginary crimes. The unhappy victims were torn away
+not only in the time of war, but of profound peace. They were then
+carried across the Atlantic, in a manner too horrible to describe; and
+afterwards subjected to eternal slavery. In support of the continuance
+of such a traffic, he knew of nothing but assertions already disproved,
+and arguments already refuted. Since the year 1796, when it was to cease
+by a resolution of Parliament, no less than three hundred and sixty
+thousand Africans had been torn away from their native land. What an
+accumulation was this to our former guilt!
+
+General Gascoyne made two extraordinary assertions: First, that the
+trade was defensible on Scriptural ground.--"Both thy bondmen and thy
+bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen, that are
+round about thee; of them shall you have bondmen and bondmaids. And thou
+shalt take them as an heritance for thy children after thee to inherit
+them for a possession; they shall be thy bondmen for ever." Secondly,
+that the trade had been so advantageous to this country, that it would
+have been advisable even to institute a new one, if the old had not
+existed.
+
+Mr. Wilberforce replied to General Gascoyne. He then took a view of the
+speech of Lord Castlereagh, which he answered point by point. In the
+course of his observations he showed that the system of duties
+progressively increasing, as proposed by the noble lord, would be one of
+the most effectual modes of perpetuating the Slave Trade. He exposed,
+also, the false foundation of the hope of any reliance on the
+co-operation of the colonists. The House, he said, had, on the motion of
+Mr. Ellis, in the year 1797, prayed his Majesty to consult with the
+colonial legislatures to take such measures, as might conduce to the
+gradual abolition of the African Slave Trade. This address was
+transmitted to them by Lord Melville. It was received in some of the
+islands with a declaration, "that they possibly might, in some
+instances, endeavour to improve the condition of their slaves; but they
+should do this, not with any view to the abolition of the Slave Trade;
+for they considered that trade as their birth-right, which could not be
+taken from them; and that we should deceive ourselves by supposing, that
+they would agree to such a measure."
+
+He desired to add to this the declaration of General Prevost in his
+public letter from Dominica. Did he not say, when asked what steps had
+been taken there in consequence of the resolution of the House in 1797,
+"that the act of the legislature, entitled an act for the encouragement,
+protection, and better government of slaves, appeared to him to have
+been considered, from the day it was passed until this hour, as a
+political measure to avert the interference of the mother country in the
+management of the slaves."
+
+Sir William Yonge censured the harsh language of Sir Samuel Romilly, who
+had applied the terms rapine, robbery, and murder to those, who were
+connected with the Slave Trade. He considered the resolution of Mr. Fox
+as a prelude to a bill for the abolition of that traffic, and this bill
+as a prelude to emancipation, which would not only be dangerous in
+itself, but would change the state of property in the islands.
+
+Lord Henry Petty, after having commented on the speeches of Sir Samuel
+Romilly and Lord Castlereagh, proceeded to state his own opinion on the
+trade; which was, that it was contrary to justice, humanity, and sound
+policy, all of which he considered to be inseparable. On its
+commencement in Africa the wickedness began. It produced there fraud and
+violence, robbery and murder. It gave birth to false accusations, and a
+mockery of justice. It was the parent of every crime, which could at
+once degrade and afflict the human race. After spreading vice and misery
+all over this continent, it doomed its unhappy victims to hardships and
+cruelties which were worse than death. The first of these was
+conspicuous in their transportation. It was found there, that cruelty
+begat cruelty; that the system, wicked in its beginning, was equally so
+in its progress; and that it perpetuated its miseries wherever it was
+carried on. Nor was it baneful only to the objects, but to the promoters
+of it. The loss of British seamen in this traffic was enormous.
+One-fifth of all, who were employed in it, perished; that is, they
+became the victims of a system, which was founded on fraud, robbery, and
+murder; and which procured to the British nation nothing but the
+execration of mankind. Nor had we yet done with the evils which attended
+it; for it brought in its train the worst of all moral effects, not only
+as it respected the poor slaves, when transported to the colonies, but
+as it respected those who had concerns with them there. The arbitrary
+power, which it conferred, afforded men of bad dispositions full scope
+for the exercise of their passions; and it rendered men,
+constitutionally of good dispositions, callous to the misery of others.
+Thus it depraved the nature of all who were connected with it. These
+considerations had made him a friend to the abolition, from the time he
+was capable of reasoning upon it. They were considerations, also, which
+determined the House, in the year 1782, to adopt a measure of the same
+kind as the present. Had anything happened to change the opinion of
+members, since? On the contrary, they had now the clearest evidence,
+that all the arguments then used against the abolition were fallacious;
+being founded, not upon truth, but on assertions devoid of all truth,
+and derived from ignorance or prejudice.
+
+Having made these remarks, he proved, by a number of facts, the folly of
+the argument, that the Africans laboured under such a total degradation
+of mental and moral faculties, that they were made for slavery.
+
+He then entered into the great subject of population. He showed that in
+all countries, where there were no unnatural hardships, mankind would
+support themselves. He applied this reasoning to the Negro population in
+the West Indies; which he maintained could not only be kept up, but
+increased, without any further importations from Africa.
+
+He then noticed the observations of Sir William Yonge, on the words of
+Sir Samuel Romilly; and desired him to reserve his indignation for
+those, who were guilty of acts of rapine, robbery, and murder, instead
+of venting it on those, who only did their duty in describing them.
+Never were accounts more shocking than those lately sent to government
+from the West Indies. Lord Seaforth, and the Attorney-General, could not
+refrain, in explaining them, from the use of the words murder and
+torture. And did it become members of that House (in order to
+accommodate the nerves of the friends of the Slave Trade) to soften down
+their expressions, when they were speaking on that subject; and to
+desist from calling that murder and torture, for which a Governor, and
+the Attorney-General, of one of the islands could find no better name?
+
+After making observations relative to the co-operation of foreign powers
+in this great work, he hoped that the House would not suffer itself to
+be drawn, either by opposition or by ridicule, to the right or to the
+left; but that it would advance straight forward to the accomplishment
+of the most magnanimous act of justice, that was ever achieved by any
+legislature in the world.
+
+Mr. Rose declared, that on the very first promulgation of this question,
+he had proposed to the friends of it the very plan of his noble friend
+Lord Castlereagh; namely, a system of progressive duties, and of
+bounties for the promotion of the Negro population. This he said to show
+that he was friendly to the principle of the measure. He would now
+observe, that he did not wholly like the present resolution. It was too
+indefinite. He wished, also, that something had been said on the subject
+of compensation. He was fearful, also, lest the abolition should lead to
+the dangerous change of emancipation. The Negroes, he said, could not be
+in a better state, or more faithful to their masters, than they were. In
+three attacks made by the enemy on Dominica, where he had a large
+property, arms had been put into their hands; and every one of them had
+exerted himself faithfully. With respect to the cruel acts in Barbados,
+an account of which had been sent to government by Lord Seaforth and the
+Attorney-General of Barbados, he had read them; and never had he read
+anything on this subject with more horror. He would agree to the
+strongest measures for the prevention of such acts in future. He would
+even give up the colony, which should refuse to make the wilful murder
+of a slave felony. But as to the other, or common, evils complained of,
+he thought the remedy should be gradual; and such also as the planters
+would concur in. He, would nevertheless not oppose the present
+resolution.
+
+Mr. Barham considered compensation but reasonable, where losses were to
+accrue from the measure, when it should be put in execution; but he
+believed that the amount of it would be much less than was apprehended.
+He considered emancipation, though so many fears had been expressed
+about it, as forming no objection to the abolition, though he had
+estates in the West Indies himself. Such a measure, if it could be
+accomplished successfully, would be an honour to the country, and a
+blessing to the planters; but preparation must be made for it by
+rendering the slaves fit for freedom, and by creating in them an
+inclination to free labour. Such a change could only be the work of
+time.
+
+Sir John Newport said that the expressions of Sir S. Romilly, which had
+given such offence, had been used by others; and would be used with
+propriety, while the trade lasted. Some slave-dealers of Liverpool had
+lately attempted to prejudice certain merchants of Ireland in their
+favour. But none of their representations answered; and it was
+remarkable, that the reply made to them was in these words. "We will
+have no share in a traffic, consisting in rapine, blood, and murder." He
+then took a survey of a system of duties progressively increasing, and
+showed that it would be utterly inefficient; and that there was no real
+remedy for the different evils complained of, but in the immediate
+prohibition of the trade.
+
+Mr. Canning renewed his professions of friendship to the cause. He did
+not like the present resolution; yet he would vote for it. He should
+have been better pleased with a bill, which would strike at once at the
+root of this detestable commerce.
+
+Mr. Manning wished the question to be deferred to the next session. He
+hoped compensation would then be brought forward as connected with it.
+Nothing, however, effectual could be done without the concurrence of the
+planters.
+
+Mr. William Smith noticed, in a striking manner, the different
+inconsistencies in the arguments of those, who contended for the
+continuance of the trade.
+
+Mr. Windham deprecated not only the Slave Trade, but slavery also. They
+were essentially connected with each other. They were both evils, and
+ought both of them to be done away. Indeed, if emancipation would follow
+the abolition, he should like the latter measure the better. Rapine,
+robbery, and murder, were the true characteristics of this traffic. The
+same epithets had not indeed been applied to slavery, because this was a
+condition, in which some part of the human race had been at every period
+of the history of the world. It was, however, a state, which ought not
+to be allowed to exist. But, notwithstanding all these confessions, he
+should weigh well the consequences of the abolition before he gave it
+his support. It would be, on a balance between the evils themselves and
+the consequences of removing them, that he should decide for himself on
+this question.
+
+Mr. Fox took a view of all the arguments, which had been advanced by the
+opponents of the abolition; and having given an appropriate answer to
+each, the House divided, when there appeared for the resolution one
+hundred and fourteen, and against it but fifteen.
+
+Immediately after this division, Mr. Wilberforce moved an address to His
+Majesty, "praying that he would be graciously pleased to direct a
+negotiation to be entered into, by which foreign powers should be
+invited to co-operate with His Majesty in measures to be adopted for the
+abolition of the African Slave Trade."
+
+This address was carried without a division. It was also moved and
+carried, that "these resolutions be communicated to the Lords; and that
+their concurrence should be desired therein."
+
+On the 24th of June, the Lords met to consider of the resolution and
+address. The Earl of Westmoreland proposed that both counsel and
+evidence should be heard against them; but his proposition was
+overruled.
+
+Lord Grenville then read the resolution of the Commons. This resolution,
+he said, stated first, that the Slave Trade was contrary to humanity,
+justice, and sound policy. That it was contrary to humanity was obvious;
+for humanity might be said to be sympathy for the distress of others, or
+a desire to accomplish benevolent ends by good means. But did not the
+Slave Trade convey ideas the very reverse of this definition? It
+deprived men of all those comforts, in which it pleased the Creator to
+make the happiness of his creatures to consist,--of the blessings of
+society,--of the charities of the dear relationships of husband, wife,
+father, son, and kindred,--of the due discharge of the relative duties
+of these--and of that freedom, which in its pure and natural sense was
+one of the greatest gifts of God to man.
+
+It was impossible to read the evidence, as it related to this trade,
+without acknowledging the inhumanity of it, and our own disgrace. By
+what means was it kept up in Africa? By wars instigated, not by the
+passions of the natives, but by our avarice. He knew it would be said in
+reply to this, that the slaves, who were purchased by us, would be put
+to death, if we were not to buy them. But what should we say, if it
+should turn out, that we were the causes of those very cruelties, which
+we affected to prevent? But, if it were not so, ought the first nation
+in the world to condescend to be the executioner of savages?
+
+Another way of keeping up the Slave Trade was by the practice of
+man-stealing. The evidence was particularly clear upon this head. This
+practice included violence, and often bloodshed. The inhumanity of it
+therefore could not be doubted.
+
+The unhappy victims, being thus procured, were conveyed, he said, across
+the Atlantic in a manner which justified the charge of inhumanity again.
+Indeed the suffering here was so great, that neither the mind could
+conceive, nor the tongue describe, it. He had said on a former occasion,
+that in their transportation there was a greater portion of misery
+condensed within a smaller space, than had ever existed in the known
+world. He would repeat his words; for he did not know, how he could
+express himself better on the subject. And, after all these horrors,
+what was their destiny? It was such, as justified the charge in the
+resolution again: for, after having survived the sickness arising from
+the passage, they were doomed to interminable slavery.
+
+We had been, he said, so much accustomed to words, descriptive of the
+cruelty of this traffic, that we had almost forgotten their meaning. He
+wished that some person, educated as an Englishman, with suitable powers
+of eloquence, but now for the first time informed of all the horrors of
+it, were to address their lordships upon it, and he was sure, that they
+would instantly determine that it should cease. But the continuance of
+it had rendered cruelty familiar to us; and the recital of its horrors,
+had been so frequent, that we could now hear them stated without being
+affected as we ought to be. He intreated their lordships, however, to
+endeavour to conceive the hard case of the unhappy victims of it; and as
+he had led them to the last stage of their miserable existence, which
+was in the colonies, to contemplate it there. They were there under the
+arbitrary will of a cruel task-master from morning till night. When they
+went to rest, would not their dreams be frightful? When they awoke,
+would they not awake--
+
+
+  --only to discover sights of woe,
+  Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
+  And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
+  That comes to all; but torture without end
+  Still urges?--
+
+
+They knew no change, except in the humour of their masters, to whom
+their whole destiny was entrusted. We might, perhaps, flatter ourselves
+with saying, that they were subject to the will of Englishmen. But
+Englishmen were not better than others, when in possession of arbitrary
+power. The very fairest exercise of it was a never-failing corrupter of
+the heart. But suppose it were allowed that self-interest might operate
+some little against cruelty; yet where was the interest of the overseer
+or the driver? But he knew it would be said, that the evils complained
+of in the colonies had been mitigated. There might be instances of this;
+but they could never be cured, while slavery existed. Slavery took away
+more than half of the human character. Hence the practice, where it
+existed, of rejecting the testimony of the slave: but, if this testimony
+was rejected, where could be his redress against his oppressor?
+
+Having shown the inhumanity, he would proceed to the second point in the
+resolution, or the injustice of the trade. We had two ideas of justice,
+first, as it belonged to society by virtue of a social compact; and,
+secondly, as it belonged to men, not as citizens of a community, but as
+beings of one common nature. In a state of nature, man had a right to
+the fruit of his own labour absolutely to himself; and one of the main
+purposes, for which he entered into society, was that he might be better
+protected in the possession of his rights. In both cases therefore it
+was manifestly unjust, that a man should be made to labour during the
+whole of his life, and yet have no benefit from his labour. Hence the
+Slave Trade and the colonial slavery were a violation of the very
+principle, upon which all law for the protection of property was
+founded. Whatever benefit was derived from that trade, to an individual,
+it was derived from dishonour and dishonesty. He forced from the unhappy
+victim of it that, which the latter did not wish to give him; and he
+gave to the same victim that, which he in vain attempted to show was an
+equivalent to the thing he took,--it being a thing for which there was
+no equivalent; and which, if he had not obtained by force, he would not
+have possessed at all. Nor could there be any answer to this reasoning,
+unless it could be proved, that it had pleased God to give to the
+inhabitants of Britain a property in the liberty and life of the natives
+of Africa. But he would go further on this subject. The injustice
+complained of was not confined to the bare circumstance of robbing them
+of the right to their own labour. It was conspicuous throughout the
+system. They, who bought them, became guilty of all the crimes which had
+been committed in procuring them, and when they possessed them, of all
+the crimes which belonged to their inhuman treatment. The injustice in
+the latter case amounted frequently to murder. For what was it but
+murder to pursue a practice, which produced untimely death to thousands
+of innocent and helpless beings? It was a duty, which their lordships
+owed to their Creator, if they hoped for mercy, to do away this
+monstrous oppression.
+
+With respect to the impolicy of the trade, (the third point in the
+resolution,) he would say at once, that whatever was inhuman and unjust
+must be, impolitic. He had, however, no objection to argue the point
+upon its own particular merits: and, first, he would observe, that a
+great man, Mr. Pitt, now no more, had exerted his vast powers on many
+subjects, to the admiration of his hearers; but on none more
+successfully than on the subject of the abolition of the Slave Trade. He
+proved, after making an allowance for the price paid for the slaves in
+the West Indies, for the loss of them in the seasoning, and for the
+expense of maintaining them afterwards; and comparing these particulars
+with the amount in value of their labour there, that the evils endured
+by the victims of the traffic were no gain to the master, in whose
+service they took place. Indeed, Mr. Long had laid it down in his
+_History of Jamaica_, that the best way to secure the planters from ruin
+would be to do that which the resolution recommended. It was notorious,
+that when any planter was in distress, and sought to relieve himself by
+increasing the labour on his estate, by means of the purchase of new
+slaves, the measure invariably tended to his destruction. What then was
+the importation of fresh Africans, but a system tending to the general
+ruin of the islands?
+
+But it had often been said, that without fresh importations the
+population of the slaves could not be supported in the islands. This,
+however, was a mistake. It had arisen from reckoning the deaths of the
+imported Africans, of whom so many were lost in the seasoning, among the
+deaths of the Creole slaves. He did not mean to say that, under the
+existing degree of misery, the population would greatly increase; but,
+he would maintain, that if the deaths and the births were calculated
+upon those, who were either born, or who had been a long time in the
+islands, so as to be considered as natives, it would be found that the
+population had not only been kept up, but that it had been increased.
+
+If it was true, that the labour of a free-man was cheaper than that of a
+slave; and, also, that the labour of a long-imported slave was cheaper
+than that of a fresh-imported one; and, again, that the chances of
+mortality were much more numerous among the newly-imported slaves in the
+West Indies, than among those of old standing there, (propositions,
+which he took to be established,) we should see new arguments for the
+impolicy of the trade.
+
+It might be stated also, that the importation of vast bodies of men, who
+had been robbed of their rights, and grievously irritated on that
+account, into our colonies, (where their miserable condition opened new
+sources of anger and revenge,) was the importation only of the seeds of
+insurrection into them. And here he could not but view with astonishment
+the reasoning of the West Indian planters, who held up the example of
+St. Domingo as a warning against the abolition of the Slave Trade;
+because the continuance of it was one of the great causes of the
+insurrections and subsequent miseries in that devoted island. Let us but
+encourage importations in the same rapid progression of increase every
+year, which took place in St. Domingo, and we should witness the same
+effect in our own islands.
+
+To expose the impolicy of the trade further, he would observe, that it
+was an allowed axiom, that as the condition of man was improved, he
+became more useful. The history of our own country, in very early times,
+exhibited instances of internal slavery, and this to a considerable
+extent. But we should find that; precisely in proportion as that slavery
+was ameliorated, the power and prosperity of the country flourished.
+This was exactly applicable to the case in question. There could be no
+general amelioration of slavery in the West Indies, while the Slave
+Trade lasted: but if we were to abolish it, we should make it the
+interest of every owner of slaves to do that, which would improve their
+condition, and which, indeed, would lead ultimately to the annihilation
+of slavery itself. This great event, however, could not be accomplished
+at once; it could only be effected in a course of time.
+
+It would be endless, he said, to go into all the cases, which would
+manifest the impolicy of this odious traffic. Inhuman as it was, unjust
+as it was, he believed it to be equally impolitic; and if their
+Lordships should be of this opinion also, he hoped they would agree to
+that part of the resolution, in which these truths were expressed. With
+respect to the other part of it, or that they would proceed to abolish
+the trade, he observed, that neither the time, nor the manner of doing
+it, were specified. Hence, if any of them should differ as to these
+particulars, they, might yet vote for the resolution, as they were not
+pledged to anything definite in these respects, provided they thought
+that the trade should be abolished at some time or other: and he did not
+believe that there was any one of them, who would sanction its
+continuance for ever.
+
+Lord Hawkesbury said, that he did not mean to discuss the question, on
+the ground of justice and humanity, as contradistinguished from sound
+policy. If it could fairly be made out that the African Slave Trade was
+contrary to justice and humanity, it ought to be abolished. It did not,
+however, follow, because a great evil subsisted, that therefore it
+should be removed; for it might be comparatively a less evil, than that
+which would accompany the attempt to remove it. The noble lord, who had
+just spoken, had exemplified this; for though slavery was a great evil
+in itself, he was of opinion that it could not be done away, but in a
+course of time.
+
+A state of slavery, he said, had existed in Africa from the earliest
+time; and, unless other nations would concur with England in the measure
+of the abolition, we could not change it for the better.
+
+Slavery had existed also throughout all Europe. It had now happily, in a
+great measure, been done away. But how? Not by acts of parliament, for
+these might have retarded the event, but by the progress of
+civilization, which removed the evil in a gradual and rational manner.
+
+He then went over the same ground of argument, as when a member of the
+Commons in 1792. He said that the inhumanity of the abolition was
+visible in this, that not one slave less would be taken from Africa; and
+that such as were taken from it, would suffer more than they did now, in
+the hands of foreigners. He maintained also, as before, that the example
+of St. Domingo afforded one of the strongest arguments against the
+abolition of the trade. And he concluded by objecting to the resolution,
+inasmuch as it could do no good, for the substance of it would be to be
+discussed again in a future session.
+
+The Bishop of London, Dr. Porteus, began, by noticing the concession of
+the last speaker, namely, that if the trade was contrary to humanity and
+justice, it ought to be abolished. He expected, he said, that the noble
+lord would have proved that it was not contrary to these great
+principles, before he had supported its continuance; but not a word had
+he said to show that the basis of the resolution in these respects was
+false. It followed then, he thought, that as the noble lord had not
+disproved the premises; he was bound to abide by the conclusion.
+
+The ways, he said, in which the Africans were reduced to slavery in
+their own country, were by wars,--many of which were excited for the
+purpose,--by the breaking up of villages, by kidnapping and by
+conviction for a violation of their own laws. Of the latter class many
+were accused falsely, and of crimes which did not exist. He then read a
+number of extracts from the evidence examined before the privy council,
+and from the histories of those, who, having lived in Africa, had thrown
+light upon this subject before the question was agitated. All these, he
+said, (and similar instances could be multiplied,) proved the truth of
+the resolution, that the African Slave Trade was contrary to the
+principles of humanity, justice, and sound policy.
+
+It was moreover, he said, contrary to the principles of the religion we
+professed. It was not superfluous to say this, when it had been so
+frequently asserted that it was sanctioned both by the Jewish and the
+Christian dispensations. With respect to the Jews he would observe, that
+there was no such thing as perpetual slavery among them. Their slaves
+were of two kinds, those of their own nation, and those from the country
+round about them. The former were to be set free on the seventh year;
+and the rest, of whatever nation, on the fiftieth, or on the year of
+Jubilee. With respect to the Christian dispensation, it was a libel to
+say that it countenanced such a traffic. It opposed it both in its
+spirit and in its principle; nay, it opposed it positively, for it
+classed men-stealers, or slave traders, among the murderers of fathers
+and mothers, and the most profane criminals upon earth.
+
+The antiquity of slavery in Africa, which the noble lord had glanced at,
+afforded, he said, no argument for its continuance. Such a mode of
+defence would prevent for ever the removal of any evil; it would justify
+the practice of the Chinese, who exposed their infants in the streets to
+perish; it would also justify piracy, for that practice existed long
+before we knew anything of the African Slave Trade.
+
+He then combatted the argument, that we did a kindness to the Africans
+by taking them from their homes; and concluded, by stating to their
+lordships, that, if they refused to sanction the resolution, they would
+establish these principles, "that though individuals might not rob and
+murder, yet that nations might--that though individuals incurred the
+penalties of death by such practices, yet that bodies of men might
+commit them with impunity for the purposes of lucre;--and that for such
+purposes they were not only to be permitted, but encouraged."
+
+The Lord Chancellor (Erskine) confessed that he was not satisfied with
+his own conduct on this subject. He acknowledged, with deep contrition,
+that, during the time he was a member of the other House, he had not
+once attended when this great question was discussed.
+
+In the West Indies he could say, personally, that the slaves were well
+treated, where he had an opportunity of seeing them. But no judgment was
+to be formed there with respect to the evils complained of; they must be
+appreciated as they existed in the trade. Of these he had also been an
+eye-witness. It was on this account that he felt contrition for not
+having attended the House on this subject, for there were some cruelties
+in this traffic which the human imagination could not aggravate. He had
+witnessed such scenes over the whole coast of Africa; and he could say,
+that if their lordships could only have a sudden glimpse of them, they
+would be struck with horror, and would be astonished that they could
+ever have been permitted to exist. What then would they say to their
+continuance year after year, and from age to age?
+
+From information, which he could not dispute, he was warranted in
+saying, that, on this continent, husbands were fraudulently and forcibly
+severed from their wives, and parents from their children; and that all
+the ties of blood and affection were torn up by the roots. He had
+himself seen the unhappy natives put together in heaps in the hold of a
+ship, where, with every possible attention to them, their situation must
+have been intolerable. He had also heard proved, in courts of justice,
+facts still more dreadful than those which he had seen. One of these he
+would just mention. The slaves on board a certain ship rose in a mass to
+liberate themselves, and having advanced far in the pursuit of their
+object, it became necessary to repel them by force. Some of them
+yielded, some of them were killed in the scuffle, but many of them
+actually jumped into the sea and were drowned, thus preferring death to
+the misery of their situation; while others hung to the ship, repenting
+of their rashness, and bewailing with frightful noises their horrid
+fate. Thus the whole vessel exhibited but one hideous scene of
+wretchedness. They who were subdued and secured in chains were seized
+with the flux, which carried many of them off. These things were proved
+in a trial before a British jury, which had to consider whether this was
+a loss which fell within the policy of insurance, the slaves being
+regarded as if they had been only a cargo of dead matter. He could
+mention other instances, but they were much too shocking to be
+described. Surely their lordships could never consider such a traffic to
+be consistent with humanity or justice. It was impossible.
+
+That the trade had long subsisted there was no doubt, but this was no
+argument for its continuance. Many evils of much longer standing had
+been done away, and it was always our duty to attempt to remove them.
+Should we not exult in the consideration, that we, the inhabitants of a
+small island, at the extremity of the globe, almost at its north pole,
+were become the morningstar to enlighten the nations of the earth, and
+to conduct them out of the shades of darkness into the realms of light;
+thus exhibiting to an astonished and an admiring world the blessings of
+a free constitution? Let us then not allow such a glorious opportunity
+to escape us.
+
+It had been urged that we should suffer by the abolition of the Slave
+Trade; he believed that we should not suffer. He believed that our duty
+and our interest were inseparable; and he had no difficulty in saying,
+in the face of the world, that his own opinion was, that the interests
+of a nation would be best preserved by its adherence to the principles
+of humanity, justice, and religion.
+
+The Earl of Westmoreland said, that the African Slave Trade might be
+contrary to humanity and justice, and yet it might be politic; at least,
+it might be inconsistent with humanity, and yet not be inconsistent with
+justice; this was the case when we executed a criminal, or engaged in
+war.
+
+It was, however, not contrary to justice, for justice, in this case,
+must be measured by the law of nations. But the purchase of slaves was
+not contrary to this law. The Slave Trade was a trade with the consent
+of the inhabitants of two nations, and procured by no terror, nor by any
+act of violence whatever. Slavery had existed from the first ages of the
+world, not only in Africa, but throughout the habitable globe, among the
+Persians, Greeks, and Romans; and he would compare, with great advantage
+to his argument, the wretched condition of the slaves in these ancient
+states with that of those in our colonies. Slavery too had been allowed
+in a nation which was under the especial direction of Providence; the
+Jews were allowed to hold the heathen in bondage. He admitted that what
+the learned prelate had said relative to the emancipation of the latter
+in the year of jubilee was correct; but he denied that his quotation
+relative to the stealers of men referred to the Christian religion. It
+was a mere allusion to that which was done contrary to the law of
+nations, which was the only measure of justice between states.
+
+With respect to the inhumanity of the trade, he would observe, that if
+their lordships, sitting there as legislators, were to set their faces
+against everything which appeared to be inhuman, much of the security on
+which their lives and property depended might be shaken, if not totally
+destroyed. The question was, not whether there was not some evil
+attending the Slave Trade, but whether by the measure now before them
+they should increase or diminish the quantity of human misery in the
+world. He believed, for one, considering the internal state of Africa,
+and the impossibility of procuring the concurrence of foreign nations in
+the measure, that they would not be able to do any good by the adoption
+of it.
+
+As to the impolicy of the trade, the policy of it, on the other hand,
+was so great, that he trembled at the consequences of its abolition. The
+property connected with this question amounted to a hundred millions.
+The annual produce of the islands was eighteen millions, and it yielded
+a revenue of four millions annually. How was this immense property and
+income to be preserved? Some had said it would be preserved, because the
+black population in the islands could be kept up without further
+supplies; but the planters denied this assertion, and they were the best
+judges of the subject.
+
+He condemned the resolution as a libel upon the wisdom of the law of the
+land; and upon the conduct of their ancestors. He condemned it also,
+because, if followed up, it would lead to the abolition of the trade,
+and the abolition of the trade to the emancipation of the slaves in our
+colonies.
+
+The Bishop of St. Asaph (Dr. Horsley) said, that, allowing the slaves in
+the West Indies even to be pampered with delicacies, or to be put to
+rest on a bed of roses, they could not be happy, for--a slave would be
+still a slave. The question, however, was not concerning the alteration
+of their condition, but whether we should abolish the practice, by which
+they were put in that condition? Whether it was humane, just, and
+politic in us so to place them? This question was easily answered; for
+he found it difficult to form any one notion of humanity, which did not
+include a desire of promoting the happiness of others; and he knew of no
+other justice than that, which was founded on the principle of doing to
+others, as we should wish they should do to us. And these principles of
+humanity and justice were so clear, that he found it difficult to make
+them clearer. Perhaps no difficulty was greater than that of arguing a
+self-evident proposition, and such he took to be the character of the
+proposition, that the Slave Trade was inhuman and unjust.
+
+It had been said, that slavery had existed from the beginning of the
+world. He would allow it. But had such a trade as the Slave Trade ever
+existed before? Would the noble Earl, who had talked of the slavery of
+ancient Rome and Greece, assert, that in the course of his whole
+reading, however profound it might have been, he had found anything
+resembling such a traffic? Where did it appear in history, that ships
+were regularly fitted out to fetch away tens of thousands of persons
+annually, against their will, from their native land; that these were
+subject to personal indignities and arbitrary punishments during their
+transportation; and that a certain proportion of them, owing to
+suffocation and other cruel causes, uniformly perished? He averred, that
+nothing like the African Slave Trade was ever practised in any nation
+upon earth.
+
+If the trade then was repugnant, as he maintained it was, to justice and
+humanity, he did not see how, without aiding and abetting injustice and
+inhumanity, any man could sanction it: and he thought that the noble
+baron (Hawkesbury) was peculiarly bound to support the resolution; for
+he had admitted that if it could be shown, that the trade was contrary
+to these principles, the question would be at an end. Now this
+contrariety had been made apparent, and his lordship had not even
+attempted to refute it.
+
+He would say but little on the subject of revealed religion, as it
+related to this question, because the reverend prelate, near him, had
+spoken so fully upon it. He might observe, however, that at the end of
+the sixth year, when the Hebrew slave was emancipated, he was to be
+furnished liberally from the flock, the floor, and the wine-press of his
+master.
+
+Lord Holland lamented the unfaithfulness of the noble baron (Hawkesbury)
+to his own principles, and the inflexible opposition of the noble earl
+(Westmoreland), from both which circumstances he despaired for ever of
+any assistance from them to this glorious cause. The latter wished to
+hear evidence on the subject, for the purpose, doubtless, of delay. He
+was sure, that the noble earl did not care what the evidence would say
+on either side; for his mind was made up, that the trade ought not to be
+abolished.
+
+The noble earl had made a difference between humanity, justice, and
+sound policy. God forbid, that we should ever admit such distinctions in
+this country! But he had gone further, and said, that a thing might be
+inhuman, and yet not unjust; and he put the case of the execution of a
+criminal in support of it. Did he not by this position confound all
+notions of right and wrong in human institutions? When a criminal was
+justly executed, was not the execution justice to him who suffered, and
+humanity to the body of the people at large?
+
+The noble earl had said also, that we should do no good by the
+abolition, because other nations would not concur in it. He did not know
+what other nations would do; but this he knew, that we ourselves ought
+not to be unjust because they should refuse to be honest. It was,
+however, self-obvious, that, if we admitted no more slaves into our
+colonies, the evil would be considerably diminished.
+
+Another of his arguments did not appear to be more solid; for surely the
+Slave Trade ought not to be continued, merely because the effect of the
+abolition might ultimately be that of the emancipation of the slaves; an
+event, which would be highly desirable in its due time.
+
+The noble lord had also said, that the planters were against the
+abolition, and that without their consent it could never be
+accomplished. He differed from him in both these points: for, first, he
+was a considerable planter himself, and yet he was a friend to the
+measure: secondly, by cutting off all further supplies, the planters
+would be obliged to pay more attention to the treatment of their slaves,
+and this treatment would render the trade unnecessary.
+
+The noble earl had asserted also, that the population in the West Indies
+could not be kept up without further importations; and this was the
+opinion of the planters, who were the best judges of the subject. As a
+planter he differed from his lordship again. If, indeed, all the waste
+lands were to be brought into cultivation, the present population would
+be insufficient. But the government had already determined, that the
+trade should not be continued for such a purpose. We were no longer to
+continue pirates, or executioners for every petty tyrant in Africa, in
+order that every holder of a bit of land in our islands might cultivate
+the whole of his allotment; a work, which might require centuries.
+Making this exception, he would maintain, that no further importations
+were necessary. Few or no slaves had been imported into Antigua for many
+years; and he believed, that even some had been exported from it. As to
+Jamaica, although in one year fifteen thousand died in consequence of
+hurricane and famine, the excess of deaths over the births during the
+twenty years preceding 1788 was only one per cent. Deducting, however,
+the mortality of the newly imported slaves, and making the calculation
+upon the Negroes born in the island or upon those who had been long
+there, he believed the births and the deaths would be found equal. He
+had a right therefore to argue that the Negroes, with better treatment
+(which the abolition would secure), would not only maintain but increase
+their population, without any aid from Africa. He would add, that the
+newly imported Africans brought with them not only disorders which
+ravaged the plantations, but danger from the probability of
+insurrections. He wished most heartily for the total abolition of the
+trade. He was convinced, that it was both inhuman, unjust, and
+impolitic. This had always been his opinion as an individual since he
+was capable of forming one. It was his opinion then as a legislator. It
+was his opinion as a colonial proprietor; and it was his opinion as an
+Englishman, wishing for the prosperity of the British empire.
+
+The Earl of Suffolk contended, that the population of the slaves in the
+islands could be kept up by good treatment, so as to be sufficient for
+their cultivation. He entered into a detail of calculations from the
+year 1772 downwards in support of this statement. He believed all the
+miseries of St. Domingo arose from the vast importation of Africans. He
+had such a deep sense of the inhumanity and injustice of the Slave
+Trade, that, if ever he wished any action of his life to be recorded, it
+would be that of the vote he should then give in support of the
+resolution.
+
+Lord Sidmouth said, that he agreed to the substance of the resolution,
+but yet he could not support it. Could he be convinced that the trade
+would be injurious to the cause of humanity and justice, the question
+with him would be decided; for policy could not be opposed to humanity
+and justice. He had been of opinion for the last twenty years, that the
+interests of the country and those of numerous individuals were so
+deeply blended with this traffic, that we should be very cautious how we
+proceeded. With respect to the cultivation of new lands, he would not
+allow a single Negro to be imported for such a purpose; but he must have
+a regard to the old plantations. When he found a sufficient increase in
+the Black population to continue the cultivation already established
+there, then, but not till then, he would agree to an abolition of the
+trade.
+
+Earl Stanhope said he would not detain their lordships long. He could
+not, however, help expressing his astonishment at what had fallen from
+the last speaker; for he had evidently confessed that the Slave Trade
+was inhuman and unjust, and then he had insinuated, that it was neither
+inhuman nor unjust to continue it. A more paradoxical or whimsical
+opinion, he believed, was never entertained, or more whimsically
+expressed in that house. The noble viscount had talked of the interests
+of the planters; but this was but a part of the subject; for surely the
+people of Africa were not to be forgotten. He did not understand the
+practice of complimenting the planters with the lives of men, women, and
+helpless children by thousands, for the sake of their pecuniary
+advantage; and they, who adopted it, whatever they might think of the
+consistency of their own conduct, offered an insult to the sacred names
+of humanity and justice.
+
+The noble Earl (Westmoreland) had asked what would be the practical
+effect of the abolition of the Slave Trade. He would inform him. It
+would do away the infamous practices which took place in Africa; it
+would put an end to the horrors of the passage; it would save many
+thousands of our fellow-creatures from the miseries of eternal slavery;
+it would oblige the planters to treat those better, who were already in
+that unnatural state; it would increase the population of our islands;
+it would give a death-blow to the diabolical calculations, whether it
+was cheaper to work the Negroes to death and recruit the gangs by fresh
+importations, or to work them moderately and to treat them kindly. He
+knew of no event, which would be attended with so many blessings.
+
+There was but one other matter, which he would notice. The noble baron
+(Hawkesbury) had asserted, that all the horrors of St. Domingo were the
+consequence of the speculative opinions which were current in a
+neighbouring kingdom on the subject at liberty. They had, he said, no
+such origin. They were owing to two causes; first, to the vast number of
+Negroes recently imported into that island; and, secondly, to a
+scandalous breach of faith by the French legislature. This legislature
+held out the idea not only of the abolition of the Slave Trade, but also
+of all slavery; but it broke its word. It held forth the rights of man
+to the whole human race, and then, in practice, it most infamously
+abandoned every article in these rights; so that it became the scorn of
+all the enlightened and virtuous part of mankind. These were the great
+causes of the miseries of St. Domingo, and not the speculative opinions
+of France.
+
+Earl Grosvenor could not but express the joy he felt at the hope, after
+all his disappointments, that this wicked trade would be done away. He
+hoped that his Majesty's ministers were in earnest, and that they would,
+early in the next session, take this great question up with a
+determination to go through with it; so that another year should not
+pass before we extended the justice and humanity of the country to the
+helpless and unhappy inhabitants of Africa.
+
+Earl Fitzwilliam said he was fearful lest the calamities of St. Domingo
+should be brought home to our own islands. We ought not, he thought, too
+hastily to adopt the resolution on that account. He should therefore
+support the previous question.
+
+Lord Ellenborough said, he was sorry to differ from his noble friend
+(Lord Sidmouth), and yet he could not help saying that if after twenty
+years, during which this question had been discussed by both Houses of
+Parliament, their lordships' judgments were not ripe for its
+determination, he could not look with any confidence to a time when they
+would be ready to decide it.
+
+The question then before them was short and plain. It was, whether the
+African Slave Trade was inhuman, unjust, and impolitic. If the premises
+were true, we could not too speedily bring it to a conclusion.
+
+The subject had been frequently brought before him in a way which had
+enabled him to become acquainted with it; and he was the more anxious on
+that account to deliver his sentiments upon it as a peer of Parliament,
+without reference to anything he had been called upon to do in the
+discharge of his professional duty. When he looked at the mode in which
+this traffic commenced, by the spoliation of the rights of a whole
+quarter of the globe; by the misery of whole nations of helpless
+Africans; by tearing them from their homes, their families, and their
+friends; when he saw the unhappy victims carried away by force; thrust
+into a dungeon in the hold of a ship, in which the interval of their
+passage from their native to a foreign land was filled up with misery,
+under every degree of debasement, and in chains; and when he saw them
+afterwards consigned to an eternal slavery, he could not but contemplate
+the whole system with horror. It was inhuman in its beginning, inhuman
+in its progress, and inhuman to the very end.
+
+Nor was it more inhuman than it was unjust. The noble earl,
+(Westmoreland,) in adverting to this part of the question had considered
+it as a question of justice between two nations, but it was a moral
+question. Although the natives of Africa might be taken by persons
+authorized by their own laws to take and dispose of them, and the
+practice, therefore, might be said to be legal as it respected them, yet
+no man could doubt, whatever ordinances they might have to sanction it,
+that it was radically, essentially, and in principle, unjust; and
+therefore there could be no excuse for us in continuing it. On the
+general principle of natural justice, which was paramount to all
+ordinances of men, it was quite impossible to defend this traffic; and
+he agreed with the noble baron (Hawkesbury) that, having decided that it
+was inhuman and unjust, we should not inquire whether it was impolitic.
+Indeed, the inquiry itself would be impious; for it was the common
+ordinance of God, that that which was inhuman and unjust, should never
+be for the good of man. Its impolicy, therefore, was included in its
+injustice and its inhumanity. And he had no doubt, when the importations
+were stopped, that the planters would introduce a change of system among
+their slaves which would increase their population, so as to render any
+further supplies from Africa unnecessary. It had been proved, indeed,
+that the Negro population in some of the islands was already in this
+desirable state. Many other happy effects would follow. As to the losses
+which would arise from the abolition of the Slave Trade, they, who were
+interested in the continuance of it, had greatly over-rated them. When
+pleading formerly in his professional capacity for the merchants of
+Liverpool at their lordships' bar, he had often delivered statements,
+which he had received from them, and which he afterwards discovered to
+be grossly incorrect. He could say from his own knowledge, that the
+assertion of the noble earl (Westmoreland), that property to the amount
+of a hundred millions would be endangered, was wild and fanciful. He
+would not however deny, that some loss might accompany the abolition;
+but there could be no difficulty in providing for it. Such a
+consideration ought not to be allowed to impede their progress in
+getting rid of an horrible injustice.
+
+But it had been said that we should do but little in the cause of
+humanity by abolishing the Slave Trade; because other nations would
+continue it. He did not believe they would. He knew that America was
+about to give it up. He believed the states of Europe would give it up.
+But, supposing that they were all to continue it, would not our honour
+be the greater? Would not our virtue be the more signal? for then
+
+
+  --Faithful we
+  Among the faithless found:
+
+
+to which he would add, that undoubtedly we should diminish the evil, as
+far as the number of miserable beings was concerned, which was
+accustomed to be transported to our own colonies.
+
+Earl Spencer agreed with the noble viscount (Sidmouth), that the
+amelioration of the condition of the slaves was an object, which might
+be effected in the West Indies; but he was certain, that the most
+effectual way of improving it would be by the total and immediate
+abolition of the Slave Trade; and for that reason he would support the
+resolution. Had the resolution held out emancipation to them, it would
+not have had his assent; for it would have ill become the character of
+this country, if it had been once promised, to have withheld it from
+them. It was to such deception that the horrors of St. Domingo were to
+be attributed. He would not enter into the discussion of the general
+subject at present. He was convinced that the trade was what the
+resolution stated it to be, inhuman, unjust, and impolitic. He wished
+therefore, most earnestly indeed, for its abolition. As to the mode of
+effecting it, it should be such as would be attended with the least
+inconvenience to all parties. At the same time he would not allow small
+inconveniences to stand in the way of the great claims of humanity,
+justice, and religion.
+
+The question was then put on the resolution, and carried by a majority
+of forty-one to twenty. The same address also to His Majesty, which had
+been agreed upon by the Commons, was directly afterwards moved. This
+also was carried, but without the necessity of a division.
+
+The resolution and the motion having passed both Houses, one other
+parliamentary measure was yet necessary to complete the proceedings of
+this session. It was now almost universally believed, in consequence of
+what had already taken place there, that the Slave Trade had received
+its death-wound; and that it would not long survive it. It was supposed,
+therefore, that the slave-merchants would, in the interim, fit out not
+only all the vessels they had, but even buy others, to make what might
+be called their last harvest. Hence, extraordinary scenes of rapine and
+murder would be occasioned in Africa. To prevent these, a new bill was
+necessary. This was accordingly introduced into the Commons. It enacted,
+but with one exception, that from and after the first of August, 1806,
+no vessel should clear out for the Slave Trade, unless it should have
+been previously employed by the same owner or owners in the said trade,
+or should be proved to have been contracted for previously to the 10th
+of June, 1806, for the purpose of being employed in that trade. It may
+now be sufficient to say that this bill also passed both Houses of
+Parliament; soon after which the session ended.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+--Continuation from July 1806, to March 1807.--Death of Mr. Fox.--Bill
+for the total abolition of the Slave Trade carried in the House of
+Lords; sent from thence to the Commons; amended and passed there;
+carried back, and passed with its amendments by the Lords; receives
+the royal assent.--Reflections on this great event.
+
+
+It was impossible for the committee to look back to the proceedings of
+the last session, as they related to the great question under their
+care, without feeling a profusion of joy, as well as of gratitude to
+those, by whose virtuous endeavours they had taken place. But, alas, how
+few of our earthly pleasures come to us without alloy! a melancholy
+event succeeded. We had the painful intelligence, in the month of
+October 1806, that one of the oldest and warmest friends of the cause
+was then numbered with the dead.
+
+Of the character of Mr. Fox, as it related to this cause, I am bound to
+take notice. And, first, I may observe, that he professed an attachment
+to it almost as soon as it was ushered into the world. Early in the year
+1788, when he was waited upon by a deputation of the committee, his
+language was, as has appeared in the first volume, "that he would
+support their object to its fullest extent, being convinced that there
+was no remedy for the evil but in the total abolition of the trade."
+
+His subsequent conduct evinced the sincerity of his promises. He was
+constant in his attendance in Parliament whenever the question was
+brought forward; and he never failed to exert his powerful eloquence in
+its favour. The countenance, indeed, which he gave it, was of the
+greatest importance to its welfare; for most of his parliamentary
+friends, who followed his general political sentiments, patronized it
+also. By the aid of these, joined to that of the private friends of Mr.
+Pitt, and of other members, who espoused it without reference to party,
+it was always so upheld, that after the year 1791 no one of the defeats
+which it sustained, was disgraceful. The majority on the side of those
+interested in the continuance of the trade was always so trifling, that
+the abolitionists were preserved a formidable body, and their cause
+respectable.
+
+I never heard whether Mr. Fox, when he came into power, made any
+stipulations with His Majesty on the subject of the Slave Trade: but
+this I know, that he determined upon the abolition of it, if it were
+practicable, as the highest glory of his administration, and as the
+greatest earthly blessing which it was in the power of the Government to
+bestow; and that he took considerable pains to convince some of his
+colleagues in the cabinet of the propriety of the measure.
+
+When the resolution, which produced the debates in parliament, as
+detailed in the last chapter, was under contemplation, it was thought
+expedient that Mr. Fox, as the minister of state in the House of
+Commons, should introduce it himself. When applied to for this purpose
+he cheerfully undertook the office, thus acting in consistency with his
+public declaration in the year 1791, "that in whatever situation he
+might ever be, he would use his warmest efforts for the promotion of
+this righteous cause."
+
+Before the next measure, or the bill to prevent the sailing of any new
+vessel in the trade after the 1st of August, was publicly disclosed, it
+was suggested to him, that the session was nearly over; that he might
+possibly weary both Houses by another motion on the subject; and that,
+if he were to lose it, or to experience a diminution of his majorities
+in either, he might injure the cause, which was then in the road to
+triumph. To this objection he replied, "that he believed both Houses
+were disposed to get rid of the trade; that his own life was precarious;
+that if he omitted to serve the injured Africans on this occasion, he
+might have no other opportunity of doing it; and that he dared not,
+under these circumstances, neglect so great a duty."
+
+This prediction relative to himself became unfortunately verified; for
+his constitution, after this, began to decline, till at length his
+mortal destiny, in the eyes of his medical attendants, was sealed. But
+even then, when removed by pain and sickness from the discussion of
+political subjects, he never forgot this cause. In his own sufferings he
+was not unmindful of those of the injured Africans. "Two things," said
+he, on his death-bed, "I wish earnestly to see accomplished,--peace with
+Europe--and the abolition of the Slave Trade." But knowing well, that we
+could much better protect ourselves against our own external enemies,
+than this helpless people against their oppressors, he added, "but of
+the two I wish the latter." These sentiments he occasionally repeated,
+so that the subject was frequently in his thoughts in his last illness.
+Nay, "the very hope of the abolition (to use the expression of Lord
+Howick in the House of Commons) quivered on his lips in the last hour of
+it." Nor is it improbable, if earthly scenes ever rise to view at that
+awful crisis, and are perceptible, that it might have occupied his mind
+in the last moment of his existence. Then indeed would joy ineffable,
+from a conviction of having prepared the way for rescuing millions of
+human beings from misery, have attended the spirit on its departure from
+the body; and then also would this spirit, most of all purified when in
+the contemplation of peace, good-will, and charity upon earth, be in the
+fittest state, on gliding from its earthly cavern, to commix with the
+endless ocean of benevolence and love.
+
+At length the session of 1807 commenced. It was judged advisable by Lord
+Grenville, that the expected motion on this subject should, contrary to
+the practice hitherto adopted, be agitated first in the Lords.
+Accordingly, on the 2nd of January he presented a bill, called an act
+for the abolition of the Slave Trade; but he then proposed only to print
+it, and to let it lie on the table, that it might be maturely
+considered, before it should be discussed.
+
+On the 4th, no less than four counsel were heard against the bill.
+
+On the 5th the debate commenced. But of this I shall give no detailed
+account; nor, indeed, of any of those which followed it. The truth is,
+that the subject has been exhausted. They, who spoke in favour of the
+abolition, said very little that was new concerning it. They, who spoke
+against it, brought forward, as usual, nothing but negative assertions
+and fanciful conjectures. To give therefore what was said by both
+parties at these times, would be but useless repetition[A]. To give, on
+the other hand, that which was said on one side only would appear
+partial. Hence I shall offer to the reader little more than a narrative
+of facts upon these occasions.
+
+[Footnote A: The different debates in both Houses on this occasion would
+occupy the half of another volume. This is another circumstance, which
+reconciles me to the omission. But that, which reconciles me the most
+is, that they will be soon published. In these debates justice has been
+done to every individual concerned in them.]
+
+Lord Grenville opened the debate by a very luminous speech. He was
+supported by the Duke of Gloucester, the Bishop of Durham (Dr.
+Barrington), the Earls Moira, Selkirk, and Roslyn, and the Lords
+Holland, King, and Hood. The opponents of the bill were the Duke of
+Clarence, the Earls of Westmoreland and St. Vincent, and the Lords
+Sidmouth, Eldon, and Hawkesbury.
+
+The question being called for at four o'clock in the morning, it
+appeared that the personal votes and proxies in favour of Lord
+Grenville's motion amounted to one hundred, and those against it to
+thirty-six. Thus passed the first bill in England, which decreed, that
+the African Slave Trade should cease. And here I cannot omit paying to
+his Highness the Duke of Gloucester the tribute of respect, which is due
+to him, for having opposed the example of his royal relations on this
+subject in behalf of an helpless and oppressed people. The sentiments
+too, which he delivered on this occasion, ought not to be forgotten.
+"This trade," said he, "is contrary to the principles of the British
+constitution. It is, besides, a cruel and criminal traffic in the blood
+of my fellow-creatures. It is a foul stain on the national character. It
+is an offence to the Almighty. On every ground therefore on which a
+decision can be made; on the ground of policy, of liberty, of humanity,
+of justice, but, above all, on the ground of religion, I shall vote for
+its immediate extinction."
+
+On the 10th of February, the bill was carried to the House of Commons.
+On the 20th counsel were heard against it; after which, by agreement,
+the second reading of it took place. On the 23rd the question being put
+for the commitment of it, Lord Viscount Howick (now Earl Grey) began an
+eloquent speech. After he had proceeded in it some way, he begged leave
+to enter his protest against certain principles of relative justice,
+which had been laid down. "The merchants and planters," said he, "have
+an undoubted right, in common with other subjects of the realm, to
+demand justice at our hands. But that, which they denominate justice,
+does not correspond with the legitimate character of that virtue: for
+they call upon us to violate the rights of others, and to transgress our
+own moral duties. That, which they distinguish as justice, involves in
+itself the greatest injury to others. It is not, in fact, justice, which
+they demand, but--favour--and favour to themselves at the expense of the
+most grievous oppression of their fellow-creatures."
+
+He then argued the question on the ground of policy. He showed, by a
+number of official documents, how little this trade had contributed to
+the wealth of the nation, being but a fifty-fourth part of its export
+trade; and he contended that as four-sevenths of it had been cut off by
+His Majesty's proclamation, and the passing of the foreign slave bill in
+a former year, no detriment of any consequence would arise from the
+present measure.
+
+He entered into an account of the loss of seamen, and of the causes of
+the mortality, in this trade.
+
+He went largely into the subject of negro-population, in the islands
+from official documents, giving an account of it up to the latest date.
+He pointed out the former causes of its diminution, and stated how the
+remedies for these would follow.
+
+He showed how, even if the quantity of colonial produce should be
+diminished for a time, this disadvantage would, in a variety of
+instances, be more than counterbalanced by advantages, which would not
+only be great in themselves, but permanent.
+
+He then entered into a refutation of the various objections which had
+been made to the abolition, in an eloquent and perspicuous manner; and
+concluded by appealing to the great authorities of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox
+in behalf of the proposed measure. "These precious ornaments," he said,
+"of their age and country, had examined the subject with all the force
+of their capacious minds. On this question they had dismissed all
+animosity--all difference of opinion--and had proceeded in union; and he
+believed, that the best tribute of respect we could show, or the most
+splendid monument we could raise, to their memories, would be by the
+adoption of the glorious measure of the abolition of the Slave Trade."
+
+Lord Howick was supported by Mr. Roscoe, who was then one of the members
+for Liverpool; by Mr. Lushington, Mr. Fawkes, Lord Mahon, Lord Milton,
+Sir John Doyle, Sir Samuel Romilly, Mr. Wilberforce, and Earl Percy, the
+latter of whom wished that a clause might be put into the bill, by which
+all the children of slaves, born after January 1810, should be made
+free. General Gascoyne and Mr. Hibbert opposed the bill. Mr. Manning
+hoped that compensation would be made to the planters in case of loss.
+Mr. Bathurst and Mr. Hiley Addington preferred a plan for gradual
+abolition to the present mode. These having spoken, it appeared on a
+division, that there were for the question two hundred and eighty-three,
+and against it only sixteen.
+
+Of this majority I cannot but remark, that it was probably the largest
+that was ever announced on any occasion, where the House was called upon
+to divide. I must observe, also, that there was such an enthusiasm among
+the members at this time, that there appeared to be the same kind and
+degree of feeling, as manifested itself within the same walls in the
+year 1788, when the question was first started. This enthusiasm, too,
+which was of a moral nature, was so powerful, that it seemed even to
+extend to a conversion of the heart; for several of the old opponents of
+this righteous cause went away, unable to vote against it; while others
+of them staid in their places, and voted in its favour.
+
+On the 27th of February, Lord Howick moved, that the House resolve
+itself into a committee on the bill for the abolition of the Slave
+Trade. Sir C. Pole, Messrs. Hughan, Brown, Bathurst, Windham, and Fuller
+opposed the motion; and Sir R. Milbank, and Messrs. Wynne, Barham,
+Courtenay, Montague, Jacob, Whitbread, and Herbert (of Kerry), supported
+it. At length the committee was allowed to sit _pro forma_, and Mr.
+Hobhouse was put into the chair. The bill then went through it, and, the
+House being resumed, the report was received and read.
+
+On the 6th of March, when the committee sat again, Sir C. Pole moved,
+that the year 1812 be substituted for the year 1807, as the time when
+the trade should be abolished. This amendment produced a long debate,
+which was carried on by Sir C. Pole, Messrs. Fuller, Hiley Addington,
+Rose, Gascoyne, and Bathurst, on one side; and by Mr. Ward, Sir P.
+Francis; General Vyse, Sir T. Turton, Mr. Whitbread, Lord Henry Petty,
+Messrs. Canning, Stanhope, Perceval, and Wilberforce on the other. At
+length, on a division, there appeared to be one hundred and twenty-five
+against the amendment, and for it only seventeen. The chairman then read
+the bill, and it was agreed that he should report it with the amendments
+on Monday. The bill enacted, that no vessel should clear out for slaves
+from any port within the British dominions after the 1st of May, 1807,
+and that no slave should be landed in the colonies after the 1st of
+March, 1808.
+
+On the 16th of March, on the motion of Lord Henry Petty, the question
+was put, that the bill be read a third time. Mr. Hibbert, Captain
+Herbert, Mr. T.W. Plomer, Mr. Windham, and Lord Castlereagh, spoke
+against the motion. Sir P. Francis, Mr. Lyttleton, Mr. H. Thornton, and
+Messrs. Barham, Sheridan, and Wilberforce supported it. After this the
+bill was passed without a division[A].
+
+[Footnote A: S. Lushington, Esq., M.P. for Yarmouth, gave his voluntary
+attendance and assistance to the committee, during all these motions,
+and J. Bowdler, Esq., was elected a member of it.]
+
+On Wednesday, the 18th, Lord Howick, accompanied by Mr. Wilberforce and
+others, carried the bill to the Lords. Lord Grenville, on receiving it,
+moved that it should be printed, and that, if this process could be
+finished by Monday, it should be taken into consideration on that day.
+The reason of this extraordinary haste was, that His Majesty, displeased
+with the introduction of the Roman Catholic officers' bill into the
+Commons, had signified his intention to the members of the existing
+administration, that they were to be displaced.
+
+This uneasiness, which, a few days before, had sprung up among the
+friends of the abolition, on the report that this event was probable,
+began now to show itself throughout the kingdom. Letters were written
+from various parts, manifesting the greatest fear and anxiety on account
+of the state of the bill, and desiring answers of consolation. Nor was
+this state of the mind otherwise than what might have been expected upon
+such an occasion; for the bill was yet to be printed. Being an amended
+one, it was to be argued again in the Lords. It was then to receive the
+royal assent. All these operations implied time; and it was reported
+that the new ministry[A] was formed; among whom were several who had
+shown a hostile disposition to the cause.
+
+[Footnote A: The only circumstance, which afforded comfort at this time,
+was, that the Hon. Spencer Perceval and Mr. Canning were included in it,
+who were warm patrons of this great measure.]
+
+On Monday, the 23rd, the House of Lords met. Such extraordinary
+diligence had been used in printing the bill, that it was then ready.
+Lord Grenville immediately brought it forward. The Earl of Westmoreland
+and the Marquis of Sligo opposed it. The Duke of Norfolk and the Bishop
+of Llandaff (Dr. Watson) supported it. The latter said, that this great
+act of justice would be recorded in heaven. The amendments were
+severally adopted without a division. But here an omission of three
+words was discovered, namely, "country, territory, or place," which, if
+not rectified, might defeat the purposes of the bill. An amendment was
+immediately proposed and carried. Thus the bill received the last
+sanction of the Peers. Lord Grenville then congratulated the House on
+the completion, on its part, of the most glorious measure that had ever
+been adopted by any legislative body in the world.
+
+The amendment now mentioned occasioned the bill to be sent back to the
+Commons. On the 24th, on the motion of Lord Howick, it was immediately
+taken into consideration there, and agreed to; and it was carried back
+to the Lords, as approved of, on the same day.
+
+But though the bill had now passed both houses, there was an awful fear
+throughout the kingdom lest it should not receive the royal assent
+before the ministry was dissolved. This event took place the next day;
+for on Wednesday, the 25th, at half past eleven in the morning, His
+Majesty's message was delivered to the different members of it, that
+they were then to wait upon him to deliver up the seals of their
+offices. It then appeared that a commission for the royal assent to this
+bill, among others, had been obtained. This commission was instantly
+opened by the Lord Chancellor (Erskine), who was accompanied by the
+Lords Holland and Auckland; and as the clock struck twelve, just when
+the sun was in its meridian splendour to witness this august act, this
+establishment of a Magna Charta for Africa in Britain, and to sanction
+it by its most vivid and glorious beams, it was completed. The ceremony
+being over, the seals of the respective offices were delivered up; so
+that the execution of this commission was the last act of the
+administration of Lord Grenville; an administration, which, on account
+of its virtuous exertions in behalf of the oppressed African race, will
+pass to posterity, living through successive generations in the love and
+gratitude of the most virtuous of mankind.
+
+Thus ended one of the most glorious contests, after a continuance for
+twenty years, of any ever carried on in any age or country. A contest,
+not of brutal violence, but of reason. A contest between those who felt
+deeply for the happiness and the honour of their fellow-creatures, and
+those, who, through vicious custom and the impulse of avarice, had
+trampled under foot the sacred rights of their nature, and had even
+attempted to efface all title to the divine image from their minds.
+
+Of the immense advantages of this contest I know not how to speak;
+indeed, the very agitation of the question which it involved has been
+highly important. Never was the heart of man so expanded; never were its
+generous sympathies so generally and so perseveringly excited. These
+sympathies, thus called into existence, have been useful in the
+preservation of a national virtue. For anything we know, they may have
+contributed greatly to form a counteracting balance against the
+malignant spirit, generated by our almost incessant wars during this
+period, so as to have preserved us from barbarism.
+
+It has been useful also in the discrimination of moral character; in
+private life it has enabled us to distinguish the virtuous from the more
+vicious part of the community[A]. It has shown the general
+philanthropist; it has unmasked the vicious in spite of his pretension
+to virtue. It has afforded us the same knowledge in public life; it has
+separated the moral statesman from the wicked politician. It has shown
+us who, in the legislative and executive offices of our country, are fit
+to save, and who to destroy, a nation.
+
+[Footnote A: I have had occasion to know many thousand persons in the
+course of my travels on this subject, and I can truly say, that the part
+which these took on this great question was always a true criterion of
+their moral character. Some indeed opposed the abolition, who seemed to
+be so respectable, that it was difficult to account for their conduct;
+but it invariably turned out, in the course of time, either that they
+had been influenced by interested motives, or that they were not men of
+steady moral principle. In the year 1792, when the national enthusiasm
+was so great, the good were as distinguishable from the bad, according
+to their disposition to this great cause, as if the divine Being had
+marked them, or, as a friend of mine the other day observed, as we may
+suppose the sheep to be from the goats on the day of judgment.]
+
+It has furnished us also with important lessons. It has proved what a
+creature man is! how devoted he is to his own interest! to what a length
+of atrocity he can go, unless fortified by religious principle! But as
+if this part of the prospect would be too afflicting, it has proved to
+us, on the other hand, what a glorious instrument he may become in the
+hands of his Maker; and that a little virtue, when properly leavened, is
+made capable of counteracting the effects of a mass of vice!
+
+With respect to the end obtained by this contest, or the great measure
+of the abolition of the Slave Trade as it has now passed, I know not how
+to appreciate its importance; to our own country, indeed, it is
+invaluable. We have lived, in consequence of it, to see the day, when it
+has been recorded as a principle in our legislation, that commerce
+itself shall have its moral boundaries. We have lived to see the day
+when we are likely to be delivered from the contagion of the most
+barbarous opinions. They who supported this wicked traffic, virtually
+denied that man was a moral being; they substituted the law of force for
+the law of reason: but the great act now under our consideration has
+banished the impious doctrine, and restored the rational creature to his
+moral rights. Nor is it a matter of less pleasing consideration, that,
+at this awful crisis, when the constitutions of kingdoms are on the
+point of dissolution, the stain of the blood of Africa is no longer upon
+us, or that we have been freed (alas, if it be not too late!) from a
+load of guilt, which has long hung like a mill-stone about our necks,
+ready to sink us to perdition.
+
+In tracing the measure still further, or as it will affect other lands,
+we become only the more sensible of its importance; for can we pass over
+to Africa; can we pass over to the numerous islands, the receptacles of
+miserable beings from thence; and can we call to mind the scenes of
+misery which have been passing in each of these regions of the earth,
+without acknowledging that one of the greatest sources of suffering to
+the human race has, as far as our own power extends, been done way? Can
+we pass over to these regions again, and contemplate the multitude of
+crimes which the agency necessary for keeping up the barbarous system
+produced, without acknowledging that a source of the most monstrous and
+extensive wickedness has been removed also? But here, indeed, it becomes
+us peculiarly to rejoice; for though nature shrinks from pain, and
+compassion is engendered in us when we see it become the portion of
+others, yet what is physical suffering compared with moral guilt? The
+misery of the oppressed is, in the first place, not contagious like the
+crime of the oppressor; nor is the mischief which it generates either so
+frightful or so pernicious. The body, though under affliction, may
+retain its shape; and, if it even perish, what is the loss of it but of
+worthless dust? But when the moral springs of the mind are poisoned, we
+lose the most excellent part of the constitution of our nature, and the
+divine image is no longer perceptible in us; nor are the two evils of
+similar duration. By a decree of Providence, for which we cannot be too
+thankful, we are made mortal. Hence the torments of the oppressor are
+but temporary; whereas the immortal part of us, when once corrupted, may
+carry its pollutions with it into another world.
+
+But, independently of the quantity of physical suffering, and the
+innumerable avenues to vice, in more than a quarter of the globe, which
+this great measure will cut off, there are yet blessings, which we have
+reason to consider as likely to flow from it. Among these we cannot
+overlook the great probability that Africa, now freed from the vicious
+and barbarous effects of this traffic, may be in a better state to
+comprehend and receive the sublime truths of the Christian religion. Nor
+can we overlook the probability that, a new system of treatment
+necessarily springing up in our islands, the same bright sun of
+consolation may visit her children there. But here a new hope rises to
+our view. Who knows but that emancipation, like a beautiful plant, may,
+in its due season, rise out of the ashes of the abolition of the Slave
+Trade, and that, when its own intrinsic value shall be known, the seed
+of it may be planted in other lands? And looking at the subject in this
+point of view, we cannot but be struck with the wonderful concurrence of
+events as previously necessary for this purpose, namely, that two
+nations, England and America, the mother and the child, should, in the
+same month of the same year, have abolished this impious traffic;
+nations, which at this moment have more than a million of subjects
+within their jurisdiction to partake of the blessing; and one of which,
+on account of her local situation and increasing power, is likely in
+time to give, if not law, at least a tone to the manners and customs of
+the great continent on which she is situated.
+
+Reader! Thou art now acquainted with the history of this contest!
+Rejoice in the manner of its termination! And, if thou feelest grateful
+for the event, retire within thy closet, and pour out thy thanksgivings
+to the Almighty for this his unspeakable act of mercy to thy oppressed
+fellow-creatures.
+
+THE END.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+LONDON: JOHN W. PARKER, ST. MARTIN'S LANE
+
+A SELECT LIST OF BOOKS
+
+PUBLISHED BY
+
+JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND,
+
+LONDON.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE SLAVE-TRADE and SLAVERY.--HISTORY of the RISE, PROGRESS, and
+ACCOMPLISHMENT, of the ABOLITION of the AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE by the
+British Parliament. By THOMAS CLARKSON, M.A. A NEW EDITION, with
+Prefatory Remarks on the subsequent ABOLITION of SLAVERY, and a Portrait
+from a highly-approved Picture, recently painted by HENRY ROOM.
+_Published under the Direction of the_ CENTRAL NEGRO-EMANCIPATION
+COMMITTEE. One large Volume. Octavo.
+
+THE SCRIPTURAL CHARACTER of the ENGLISH CHURCH CONSIDERED, in a SERIES
+of SERMONS, with Notes and Illustrations. By the Rev. DERWENT COLERIDGE,
+M.A.
+
+The series of Sermons, bearing the above title, were written exclusively
+for perusal, and are arranged as a connected whole. The author has
+adopted this form to avail himself of the devotional frame of mind,
+presupposed on the part of the reader, in this species of composition;
+but he has not deemed it as necessary to preserve with strictness the
+conventional style of the pulpit, for which these discourses were never
+intended: they may, consequently, be taken as a series of Essays, or as
+the successive chapters of a general work.
+
+THE CATHOLIC CHARACTER of CHRISTIANITY; in a SERIES of LETTERS to a
+FRIEND. By the Rev. FREDERICK NOLAN, LL.D., F.B.S., Vicar of
+Prittlewell, and Author of _The Evangelical Character of Christianity_,
+&c.
+
+The Profits arising from the First Edition of this Work, will be given
+to the Fund for erecting a Memorial to the Martyred Bishops at Oxford.
+
+A MANUAL of CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES; or an Account of the Constitution,
+Ministers, Worship, Discipline, and Customs of the Early Church; with an
+Introduction, containing a Complete and Chronological Analysis of the
+Works of the Antenicene Fathers. Compiled from the Works of Augusti, and
+other sources. By the Rev. J. E. RIDDLE, M.A., Author of an
+_English-Latin_ and _Latin-English Dictionary_, _Luther and his Times_,
+&c. _In the Press_.
+
+It has been the object of the writer, to construct a History of
+Christian Antiquities sufficiently copious and accurate for the use of
+the student in divinity, and at the same time instructive and acceptable
+to the general reader: a work popular in point of structure and style,
+but containing the substance of the more scholastic and expensive
+volumes of Bingham, and embodying information collected by modern
+divines, who have investigated the history and usages of the early
+church. Such a compendium was a desideratum in our theological
+literature. Our language has hitherto possessed no book fit to occupy
+the same place, in relation to the history of the church, as that which
+has long been maintained by the Antiquities of Potter and Adam, in
+connexion with the histories of Greece and Rome. And the author of the
+present volume hopes he may be permitted to say, that, in the absence of
+more able labourers in this department, he has endeavoured, by means
+especially of foreign aid, to remove the want which he has described.
+
+THE WORKS OF DOCTOR DONNE, Dean of Saint Paul's in 1619-1631; with a
+Memoir of his Life, and Critical Notices of his Writings. By HENRY
+ALFORD, M.A., Vicar of Wymeswold, and late Fellow of Trinity College,
+Cambridge. With a fine Portrait from an Original Picture by VANDYKE. Six
+Volumes Octavo.
+
+A HISTORY of the INDUCTIVE SCIENCES, from the Earliest Times to the
+Present. By the Rev. WILLIAM WHEWELL, B.D., F.R.S.; Pres. Geol. Society,
+and Professor of Casuistry in the University of Cambridge. Three
+Volumes, Octavo.
+
+THE NEW CRATYLUS; or, CONTRIBUTIONS towards a more ACCURATE KNOWLEDGE of
+the GREEK LANGUAGE. By JOHN WILLIAM DONALDSON, M.A., Fellow of Trinity
+College, Cambridge.
+
+A NEW SYSTEM OF LOGIC, and Developement of the Principles of Truth and
+Reasoning; in which a System of Logic, applicable to Moral and Practical
+Subjects, is for the first time proposed. By SAMUEL RICHARD BOSANQUET,
+A.M., of the Inner Temple.
+
+The RISE and PROGRESS of the ENGLISH CONSTITUTION; with an HISTORICAL
+and LEGAL INTRODUCTION and NOTES. By ARCHIBALD JOHN STEPHENS, M.A.,
+F.R.S., &c. Two Volumes, 30s.
+
+The Introduction is embodied in the first volume, and extends from the
+earliest period of authentic history up to the termination of the reign
+of William III.; and the Saxon institutions, tenure of lands, domesday,
+the royal prerogative, origin and progress of the legislative
+assemblies, privileges of Lords and Commons, pecuniary exactions,
+administration of justice, gradual improvements in the laws, judicial
+powers of the Peers, borough institutions, infamy of the Long
+Parliament, national dissensions, and the principles under which the
+executive power was intrusted to the Prince of Orange, have experienced
+every illustration.
+
+The doctrinal changes in the Anglican Church which were effected under
+the Tudors, are justified by a reference to the records and practice of
+the primitive Church, and the doctrinal schismatic points of Roman
+Catholic faith relating to the canons of Scripture, seven sacraments,
+sacrifice of the mass, private and solitary mass, communion in one kind,
+transubstantiation, image worship, purgatory, indulgences, confession
+and penance, absolution, &c., are clearly established as being in direct
+opposition to the opinions of the early fathers, and the fundamental
+doctrines of Christianity.
+
+The text of De Lolme is incorporated in the second volume, and the notes
+affixed extend to great length, and embody very valuable and diversified
+information relative to the rights, qualifications, and
+disqualifications of members of Parliament and their constituents; the
+unions of Scotland and Ireland with England; the origin, rise, and
+progress of the civil law under nine periods of the Roman history; civil
+process in the English courts of law; history of the courts of equity,
+and the principles under which they act; trial by jury, and an analysis
+of criminal offences, and the statutes under which they are punishable,
+with an analysis of crimes that were committed in 1837, and of the
+sentences passed. There are likewise tables of the public income and
+expenditure in the year ended January 5, 1837; of the church revenues,
+in which will be found information relative to the number of benefices
+in each diocese; total amount of incomes, gross and net, of the
+incumbents in each diocese, also the averages of each respectively;
+number of curates in each diocese; total amount of their stipends, and
+average thereof; also four scales of the incomes of the beneficed
+clergy; and genealogical tables from the Saxon and Danish kings, to
+Queen Victoria.
+
+FROM THE PRESS OF JOHN W. PARKER.
+
+MEMOIRS of the LIFE, CHARACTER, and WRITINGS, of BISHOP BUTLER, Author
+of _The Analogy_. By THOMAS BARTLETT, M.A., One of the Six Preachers of
+Canterbury Cathedral, and Rector of Kingstone, Kent. Dedicated, by
+Permission, to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury. Octavo, with an
+original Portrait.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ELIZABETHAN RELIGIOUS HISTORY. By HENRY SOAMES, M.A., Author of _The
+History of the Reformation; The Anglo-Saxon Church_, &c.
+
+This Work is intended to fill a long-acknowledged chasm in English
+literature, and especially in that which peculiarly concerns the Church
+of England. Both Romanists and Protestant Dissenters have been attentive
+to the important reign of Elizabeth, and by saying very little of each
+other, have given an invidious colouring to both the Church and the
+Government. The present work is meant to give every leading fact in
+sufficient detail, but to avoid unnecessary particulars. It reaches from
+the establishment of the Thirty-nine Articles, in 1563, to the
+Hampton-Court Conference, in 1604.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ANGLO-SAXON CHURCH; its HISTORY, REVENUES, and General Character. By
+the Rev. HENRY SOAMES, M.A., Author of the _Elizabethan Religious
+History_. A NEW EDITION.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH; from the Ascension of Jesus Christ to
+the Conversion of Constantine. By the late EDWARD BURTON, D.D.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HISTORY of the CHURCH of ENGLAND, to the REVOLUTION in 1688; embracing
+Copious Histories of the Thirty-Nine Articles, the Translation of the
+Bible, and the Compilation of the Book of Common Prayer. By THOMAS
+VOWLER SHORT, D.D. NEW EDITION, in One large Volume.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The EARLY CHRISTIANS; their MANNERS and CUSTOMS, TRIALS and SUFFERINGS.
+By the Rev. WILLIAM PRIDDEN, M.A. Second Edition.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HISTORY OF POPERY; the Origin, Growth, and Progress of the Papal Power;
+its Political Influence in the European States-System, and its Effects
+on the Progress of Civilization; an Examination of the Present State of
+the Romish Church in Ireland; a History of the Inquisition; and
+Specimens of Monkish Legends.
+
+LUTHER and HIS TIMES; History of the Rise and Progress of the German
+Reformation. By the Rev. J. E. RIDDLE, M.A., Author of _First Sundays at
+Church._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+POPULAR HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION, in Germany, Switzerland, and Great
+Britain; and of its chief Promoters, Opposers, and Victims. By THOMAS
+FOX.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+* HISTORY OF MOHAMMEDANISM, and the PRINCIPAL MOHAMMEDAN SECTS. By W.C.
+TAYLOR, LL.D.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+* The CRUSADERS; SCENES, EVENTS, and CHARACTERS, from the Times of the
+Crusades. By THOMAS KEIGHTLEY. Two Vols.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+* READINGS IN BIOGRAPHY; a Selection of the Lives of Eminent Men of all
+Nations.
+
+The design of this work is to give an account of the lives of the
+Leaders in the most important revolutions which history records, from
+the age of Sesostris to that of Napoleon. Care has been taken to select
+those personages concerning whom information is most required by the
+historical student.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM JONES, by the late LORD TEIGNMOUTH. With Notes,
+Selections from his Works, and a Memoir of his Noble Biographer, by the
+Rev. SAMUEL CHARLES WILKS, M.A. 2 Vols., 10_s_. 6_d_.
+
+SIR WILLIAM JONES was not only the most eminent linguist, but in many
+respects one of the most remarkable men, of the last century; and LORD
+TEIGNMOUTH'S Memoir of him has been justly accounted one of the most
+interesting, instructive, and entertaining pieces of modern biography.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+* LIVES OF BRITISH SACRED POETS. By R. A. WILLMOTT, Esq., Trin. Coll.
+Camb. Now complete, in Two Volumes, at 4_s_. 6_d_. each.
+
+The FIRST SERIES contains an Historical Sketch of Sacred Poetry, and the
+Lives of the English Sacred Poets preceding MILTON.
+
+The SECOND SERIES commences with MILTON, and brings down the Lives to
+that of BISHOP HEBER inclusive.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+* LIVES OF EMINENT CHRISTIANS. By RICHARD B. HONE, M.A., Vicar of Hales
+Owen. Three Volumes, 4_s_. 6_d_. each.
+
+Vol. I. ARCHBISHOP USHER, DOCTOR HAMMOND, JOHN EVELYN, BISHOP WILSON.
+
+Vol. II.
+
+BERNARD GILPIN, PHILIP DE MORNAY, BISHOP BEDELL, DOCTOR HORNECK.
+
+Vol. III.
+
+BISHOP RIDLEY, BISHOP HALL, The HONORABLE ROBERT BOYLE.
+
+BIBLE BIOGRAPHY; HISTORIES OF THE LIVES AND CONDUCT OF THE PRINCIPAL
+CHARACTERS OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT. By E. FARR, _Author of a New
+Version of the Book of Psalms_. 4_s._ 6_d._
+
+BIBLE NARRATIVE chronologically arranged, in the words of the authorized
+Version; continued by an Historical Account of the Jewish Nation: and
+forming a Consecutive History from the Creation of the World to the
+Termination of the Jewish Polity. _Dedicated by permission to the Lord
+Bishop of Winchester_. 7_s._
+
+THE EVIDENCE OF PROFANE HISTORY TO THE TRUTH OF REVELATION. DEDICATED,
+BY SPECIAL PERMISSION, TO HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN. With numerous Graphic
+Illustrations. 10_s._ 6_d._
+
+It is the object of this Work to exhibit, from traces afforded in the
+records and monuments, both sacred and profane, of the ancient world, an
+unity of purpose maintained by the all-controlling providence of God.
+
+STUDENT'S MANUAL OF ANCIENT HISTORY; ACCOUNTS OF THE PRINCIPAL NATIONS
+OF ANTIQUITY. By W.C. TAYLOR, LL.D. 10_s._ 6_d._
+
+The design of this work is to supply the student with an outline of the
+principal events in the annals of the ancient world, and at the same
+time to lead him to the consideration of the causes that produced the
+principal revolutions recorded. The geographical position, natural
+productions, and progress of civilization, in all the great monarchies
+and republics, have been diligently investigated, and their effect on
+the fortunes of the state pointed out. Thus the philosophy of history is
+made to illustrate the narrative without interrupting it.
+
+STUDENT'S MANUAL OF MODERN HISTORY; THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE
+PRINCIPAL EUROPEAN NATIONS, THEIR POLITICAL HISTORY, AND THE CHANGES IN
+THEIR SOCIAL CONDITION; WITH A HISTORY OF THE COLONIES FOUNDED BY
+EUROPEANS, AND GENERAL PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. By the same Author.
+10_s._ 6_d._
+
+*FAMILY HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By the Rev. G.R. GLEIG, M.A. With PICTORIAL
+ILLUSTRATIONS. 3 Vols., 6_s._ 6_d._ each.
+
+The main purpose of the FAMILY HISTORY OF ENGLAND has been to unite
+objects which in such undertakings are not always found to coincide;
+namely, to render the study of English History not merely instructive,
+but interesting and amusing. For this purpose, the greatest care has
+been taken to seize upon all those striking features in the detail of
+events, which not only convey to the mind of the reader a vivid picture
+of scenes past, but induce him to argue from effects to their causes.
+While the philosophy of history, therefore, is sedulously taught, it is
+taught in a manner calculated to gratify both young and old, by
+affording to the one class ample scope to reflection; to the other,
+matter that stirs and excites, while it conveys sound moral instruction.
+
+A HISTORY OF LONDON; THE PROGRESS OF ITS INSTITUTIONS; THE MANNERS AND
+CUSTOMS OF ITS PEOPLE. By CHARLES MACKAY. 7_s._
+
+Of the Histories of London which have hitherto appeared, some have been
+too voluminous and costly for the general reader, and others too
+exclusively addressed to the citizen, the antiquarian, or the traveller.
+The object of the present Volume is to furnish in a tangible form, and
+at a small price, a general and popular view of the progress of
+civilization, and of the origin and progress of those events which have
+raised London to its present importance. The work, however, is not
+confined to a history of events, but contains graphic pictures of the
+manners and customs of the people, their sports and pastimes, at
+different periods, and the characteristic incidents of their domestic
+history.
+
+GERMANY, BOHEMIA, AND HUNGARY, VISITED IN 1837. By the Rev. G.R. GLEIG,
+M.A., Chaplain to the Royal Hospital, Chelsea. Three Volume's, Post
+Octavo. 1_l._ 11_s._ 6_d._
+
+The principal design of this work is to give some account of the state
+of society as it now exists in Bohemia and Hungary. In order to reach
+these countries, the Author was, of course, obliged to pass through a
+large portion of Germany, where the social condition of the people, as
+well as the civil, ecclesiastical, and military establishments,
+attracted his attention. Upon these he touches, more especially in
+reference to Prussia, towards which the eyes of the rest of Europe are
+at present anxiously turned. But his great design was to obtain and
+communicate information, respecting countries into which few Englishmen
+are accustomed to penetrate. Hence a large portion of his tour, both in
+Bohemia and Hungary, was performed on foot; and the acquaintance which
+he was thereby enabled to form with all ranks and conditions of the
+people, was at once more intimate and more familiar than could have
+taken place had he travelled by a more usual mode of conveyance. He
+looked into the cottage as well as the palace, and he has given some
+account of both.
+
+GERMANY; THE SPIRIT OF HER HISTORY, LITERATURE, SOCIAL CONDITION, AND
+NATIONAL ECONOMY; illustrated by Reference to her Physical, Moral, and
+Political Statistics, and by Comparison with other Countries. By BISSET
+HAWKINS, M.D., Oxon., F.R.S., &c. 10_s._ 6_d._
+
+TREVES; SOME ACCOUNT OF THE CITY OF TREVES, AND OF ITS ROMAN
+ARCHITECTURAL REMAINS. From the German of WYTTENBACH. Edited, with
+NOTES, by DAWSON TURNER, Esq., and illustrated from Drawings made on the
+spot. Octavo. _Nearly Ready._
+
+RESEARCHES IN BABYLONIA, ASSYRIA, AND CHALDAEA; forming part of the
+Labours of the Euphrates Expedition, and _published with the sanction of
+the Right Hon. the President of the Board of Control_, By WILLIAM
+AINSWORTH, F.G.S., F.R.G.S. With Illustrations, Maps, &c. 12_s._ 6_d._
+
+EGYPT AND SINAI. By M. DUMAS, with Notes by the Translator. Uniformly
+with _Three Weeks in Palestine and Lebanon_.
+
+THREE WEEKS IN PALESTINE AND LEBANON. With many Engravings.   3_s._
+
+A  little volume from the Traveller's notes. Descriptions of Baalbec,
+Beiroot, Damietta, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Ramiah, and other places, are
+blended with remarks upon the natives, the incidents of the journey, and
+the observations and reflections which naturally occur to a Clergyman in
+travelling through the Holy Land.
+
+NOTES ON INDIAN AFFAIRS; by the late Hon. F.J. SHORE, Judge of the Civil
+Court and Criminal Sessions of Furrukhabad. 2 Vols., 26s.
+
+The facts and opinions contained in this Work are the result of more
+than fifteen years' residence in India--during which period the Author
+held various situations in the Police, Revenue, and Judicial
+Departments, and was in habits of close communication, both Private and
+Official, with all classes of the Natives.
+
+SCOTLAND; SKETCHES OF ITS COASTS AND ISLANDS, AND OF THE ISLE OF MAN;
+descriptive of the Scenery, and illustrative of the progressive
+Revolution in the Condition of the Inhabitants of those Regions. By LORD
+TEIGNMOUTH, M.P.  2 Vols., with Maps, 21_s_.
+
+THE WEST INDIES; THE NATURAL AND PHYSICAL HISTORY OF THE COLONIES; AND
+THE MORAL, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE INHABITANTS, BEFORE
+AND AFTER THE ABOLITION OF NEGRO SLAVERY. By SIR ANDREW HALLIDAY, K.H.,
+M.D., F.R.S.E., &c.  With Maps. 10_s_. 6_d_.
+
+NEW ZEALAND; AN ACCOUNT OF THE POSITION, EXTENT, SOIL AND CLIMATE,
+NATURAL PRODUCTIONS AND NATIVE INHABITANTS OF NEW ZEALAND, WITH
+REFERENCE TO BRITISH COLONIZATION. With Charts and Illustrations. 4_s_.
+6_d_.
+
+TWO YEARS AT SEA: NARRATIVE OF A VOYAGE TO THE SWAN RIVER AND VAN
+DIEMEN'S LAND; THENCE, TO VARIOUS PARTS OF INDIA. With Notes of a
+Residence in the Burman Empire, and of the Services and Sufferings of
+the Missionaries in that Country. By JANE ROBERTS. With Engravings,
+5_s_.
+
+MUNGO PARK; HIS LIFE AND TRAVELS: WITH AN ACCOUNT OF HIS DEATH, FROM THE
+JOURNAL OF ISAACO, THE SUBSTANCE OF LATER DISCOVERIES RELATIVE TO HIS
+LAMENTED FATE, AND THE TERMINATION OF THE NIGER. 2_s_. 6_d_.
+
+CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS; HIS LIFE, VOYAGES, AND DISCOVERY OF THE NEW WORLD.
+With Engravings. 2_s_  6_d_.
+
+CAPTAIN COOK; HIS VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES: WITH AN ACCOUNT OF PITCAIRN'S
+ISLAND, AND THE MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. Engravings. 2_s_. 6_d_.
+
+NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION TO GREENLAND, SENT BY ORDER OF THE KING OF
+DENMARK, IN SEARCH OF THE LOST COLONIES; WITH THE CHART COMPLETED BY THE
+EXPEDITION. Published under the Direction of the _Royal Geographical
+Society_. 8_s_. 6_d_.
+
+NEW POCKET GUIDE TO LONDON AND ITS ENVIRONS; containing Descriptions,
+from personal knowledge, of everything worth seeing or knowing, within
+Twenty-five Miles of the Metropolis; enlivened with Biographical and
+other Anecdotes, connected by History of Tradition with the Places
+described. With a Map of the Environs. By JOHN H. BRADY, F.R.A.S.  7_s_.
+
+THE DOMESTIC GARDENER'S MANUAL; being an Introduction to Practical
+Gardening, on Philosophical Principles; to which is added, a
+NATURALIST'S KALENDAR, and an Appendix on the Operations of Forcing,
+including the Culture of Vines in Pots. By JOHN TOWERS, C.M.H.S. Second
+Edition, Enlarged and Improved. One large Volume, Octavo.
+
+Most of the works on gardening which have come under my observation, are
+not only expensive, but appear to have been written almost exclusively
+for the affluent;--for those who possess, or can afford to possess, all
+the luxuries of the garden. We read of the management of hot-houses,
+green-houses, forcing-houses; of nursery-grounds, shrubberies, and other
+concomitants of ornamental gardening. Now, although it is acknowledged
+that many useful ideas may be gathered from these works, still it is
+obvious that they are chiefly written for those whose rank in life
+enables them to employ a chief gardener and assistants, qualified for
+the performance of the many operations required in the various
+departments of large gardens. As I profess to have a very different
+object in view, I address this book to those, who, without aiming to
+become professional gardeners, wish, nevertheless, to acquire so much of
+the art of Gardening as shall enable them to conduct its more common and
+essential operations with facility and precision.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MUSICAL HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, AND CRITICISM; being a General Survey of
+Music from the earliest Period to the Present Time. By GEORGE HOGARTH.
+_A new and enlarged edition, in Two Volumes.__10s. 6d._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LECTURES on ASTRONOMY, delivered at KING'S COLLEGE, London, by the Rev.
+HENRY MOSELEY, M.A., F.R.S., Professor of Natural Philosophy and
+Astronomy in that Institution. With numerous Illustrations. 5_s._ 6_d._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+*MECHANICS APPLIED TO THE ARTS. By PROFESSOR MOSELEY, of King's College,
+London. A New Edition, corrected and improved. With numerous Engravings.
+_6s. 6d._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A MANUAL OF CHEMISTRY, by W.T. BRANDE, F.R.S., Prof, Chem. R.I., and of
+Her Majesty's Mint. 30_s._
+
+Although Three Editions of the _Manual of Chemistry_ have already
+appeared, the present may be considered as a new work. It has been
+almost wholly re-written; everything new and important in the Science,
+both in English and Foreign Works, has been embodied; and it abounds in
+references to Authorities.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF CHEMICAL PHILOSOPHY: being a preparatory
+View of the Forces which concur to the Production of Chemical Phenomena.
+By J. FREDERIC DANIELL, F.R.S. Professor of Chemistry in King's College,
+London; and Lecturer on Chemistry and Geology in the Hon. East India
+Company's Military Seminary at Addiscombe; and Author of _Meteorological
+Essays_. 16_s_.
+
+FROM THE PRESS OF JOHN W. PARKER.
+
+* A FAMILIAR HISTORY of BIRDS; their Nature, Habits, and Instincts. By
+EDWARD STANLEY, D.D., F.L.S., Lord Bishop of Norwich; President of the
+Linnaean Society. Two Vols., with Engravings. 7_s_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+BRITISH SONG BIRDS; Popular Descriptions and Anecdotes of the Songsters
+of the Groves. By NEVILLE WOOD. _7s_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+OUTLINES OF GENERAL PATHOLOGY. By GEORGE FRECKLETON, M.D., Cantab.,
+Fellow of the Royal Coll. of Physicians. 7_s_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+* POPULAR PHYSIOLOGY; familiar Explanations of interesting Facts
+connected with the Structure and Functions of Animals, and particularly
+of Man. By PERCEVAL B. LORD, M.B. Many Engravings. 7_s._ 6_d._
+
+To trace the finger of God in the works of creation, to consider "the
+wonders that He doeth amongst the children of men," has ever been a
+source of the purest and noblest gratification,--that moral
+gratification which a well-framed mind naturally experiences in
+contemplating Infinite Power working out the dictates of Infinite
+Goodness,--that intellectual satisfaction which attends upon our being
+allowed, even imperfectly, to comprehend some small part of the designs
+of Infinite Wisdom.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE DOCTRINE OF LIMITS, with its Applications; namely, The First Three
+Sections of Newton--Conic Sections--The Differential Calculus. By the
+Rev. WILLIAM WHEWELL, B.D., &c. 9_s._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE MECHANICAL EUCLID. By the Rev. WILLIAM WHEWELL, B.D., Fellow and
+Tutor of Trin. Coll. Cambridge. 5_s._ 6_d._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE on the DIFFERENTIAL and INTEGRAL CALCULUS. By the
+Rev. T.G. HALL, M.A., Professor of Mathematics, King's College, London.
+12_s_. 6_d_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LECTURES upon TRIGONOMETRY, and the APPLICATION of ALGEBRA to GEOMETRY.
+Second Edition, corrected. 7_s._ 6_d._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+DYNAMICS, or a TREATISE on MOTION; to which is added, a SHORT TREATISE
+on ATTRACTIONS. By SAMUEL EARNSHAW, M.A., of St. John's College,
+Cambridge. Octavo, with many Cuts. 14_s._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE MAGAZINE OF POPULAR SCIENCE; complete in Four large Volumes, Octavo.
+L2 15_s._
+
+This work furnishes the general reader with popular and connected views
+of the actual progress and condition of the Physical Sciences, both at
+home and abroad. The Mechanical Arts, Dietetic Chemistry, the Structure
+of the Earth, Electricity, Galvanism, Gas, Heat, Light, Magnetism, the
+Mathematical Sciences, Philosophical Instruments, Rain, Steam, the
+Cometary System, Tides, Volcanoes, &c., have, among many others, been
+developed in original communications and discussions, abounding in the
+freshest facts, the most recent discoveries; and the latest
+intelligence, which on indefatigable examination of the products of
+Scientific Research, at home and abroad, has been able to furnish.
+
+The Sciences of ASTRONOMY, CHEMISTRY, and GEOLOGY, are comprehensively,
+but popularly, treated in a series of papers, forming regular and
+complete Courses on those several Subjects.
+
+THE STUDENT'S MANUAL OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY; comprising Descriptions,
+Popular and Practical, of the most important Philosophical Instruments,
+their History, Nature and Uses; with complete elucidations of the
+Sciences to which they respectively appertain. Dedicated, by permission,
+to the Lord Bishop of Salisbury. By CHARLES TOMLINSON. 10_s._ 6_d._
+
+In this work certain prominent subjects have been selected with which it
+behoves every one to be acquainted: such, for example, as relate to what
+may be called our HOUSEHOLD INSTRUMENTS, namely, the Thermometer, the
+Barometer, and Vernier; the Hydrometer, the Hygrometer; the Tuning-Fork,
+Musical Glasses and Music generally; the Compass; the Prism, the
+Telescope, and the Sun-Dial. These subjects, and those in immediate
+connexion with them, are treated of extensively; as also their
+application to Science, Art, and, Industry.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+* READINGS in SCIENCE; familiar EXPLANATIONS of Appearances and
+Principles in NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. With many Engravings. 5_s_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+* EASY LESSONS IN MECHANICS: with Familiar Illustrations of the
+Practical Application of Mechanical Principles. 3_s_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HOUSE I LIVE IN; or Popular Illustrations of the Structure and Functions
+of the Human Body. Edited by T.C. GIRTIN. 2_s_. 6_d_.
+
+"I am fearfully and wonderfully made!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+* MINERALS AND METALS; their Natural History and Uses in the Arts: with
+Accounts of Mines and Mining. Engravings. 2_s._ 6_d._
+
+Familiar as we are, from our earliest years, with the various articles
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+FROM THE PRESS OF JOHN W. PARKER.
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