The Parliamentary History of England, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803

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throw him up again. Or if any one had | nial assemblies we could do nothing; and a sore which had afflicted him long, it yet the very same gentleman who told us might be dangerous suddenly to stop this, told us also that the colonial assemits running. In this light did the imme- blies were much alarmed, and trembled diate abolition of the Slave trade appear lest the proceedings of the British parliato him; or if not in this light, in another, ment should ruin the colonies by abolishwhich at best could possibly do no good; ing this trade. Both these points could for he was persuaded, if we abolished it, not be solidly founded, for if we could the trade would be still carried on. Those not effectuate the abolition without the of the other description to which he had consent of the colonies, why should they alluded, defended the continuance of the tremble at our proceedings? According trade as an advantage, but indeed it was to that doctrine the vote of abolition now pretty generally admitted to be an could never be carried into effect without evil. The real question appeared to him the assent of the colonies; then, why to be a question of political and moral should they be alarmed at a measure, prudence; that the evil of the trade which can only have efficacy from their could not fairly be stopped on a sudden; own consent? The truth was, that the and that those who wished to do so, would parliament of this country had the means find their means not adequate to the end. within itself of completely abolishing this He therefore thought that the wiser trade, and it was their duty to do so. course for the House to adopt was, to Some persons might think that however refer the amelioration of the condition unjust or inhuman the trade might be, of the unhappy slaves to the colonial as- yet that it was a matter of great nasemblies. He concluded with giving his tional concern, and not to be governed dissent to the motion. like a case between two individuals. why should the conduct of a nation be guided in a manner that had no reference to the laws of nature, or the divine law, or the rules of reason any more than the affairs of an individual? The one required as much attention to these points as the other, and those who were the authors and continuers of this infamous traffic, ought now to put an end to the evil. He hoped he should not show himself so wedded to abstract theories, in opposition to practical experience, as to exclude things, because in theory they appeared defective, but which in practice had proved to be good. But here the end proposed was not a theory only, but a practical measure. It was two-fold. The one was to stop the mischief, the other to do away the guilt. At all events, the one was practicablethat was to do away the guilt; he believed the other was practicable also. But sure he was, they would never obtain any credit for intention to do away the mischief on the part of others, until they had done away the guilt on the part of themselves. His right hon. friend had said, that because a thing was wrong, we should not, on that account, adopt the contrary measure by way of remedy for the evil. Perfectly right: but that was not proposed to be done here: it was only proposed that we should discontinue an exposed, deprecated, convicted, recorded practice of injustice, rapine and murder; not whether that should not have ever [20]

Mr. Pitt said he was one of those who always had been, and until his mind should change its nature, always should be, a friend to the immediate and unqualified abolition of the Slave trade. He derived great satisfaction from what had been said by both his right hon. friends, (Mr Dundas and Mr. Windham). They had neither of them denied the injustice, nor the inhumanity of this trade, but had admitted it; but he thought he had heard some things that night which manifested a disposition to continue the trade for ever. He could not understand upon what ground the House was to dispute the propriety of discontinuing a trade which they themselves had declared to be against justice, humanity, morality, and religion, and for the abolition of which the honour of the British parliament stood pledged. The question now was, whether, as they felt what was said by the friends of the Slave trade, that they, the legislature, were the original authors of this iniquity, and of its continuance, and therefore answerable for all its horrors, they should not now become the authors of a remedy for these evils? This was a trade carried on under our law, by our subjects, from our ports, by our capital. If so, he thought it would not be very difficult for us to abolish it, and that effectually, even without the consent of the colonial assemblies. But this was said to be impossible, and that without the consent of the colo[VOL. XXXIV.]

been allowed, but whether it should now be deliberately repeated. If we were to ask the advice of the assemblies, we must continue that recorded practice of rapine and murder; we must continue to tear these helpless victims of misery from their native land, and from their families. But it was not intended to do that which his right hon. friend hinted at; for it was not intended to send the negroes back again to Africa. His right hon. friend had said, that if a man should happen to be thrown out of a window, by which he might have a bone fractured, or a joint dislocated, the remedy was not to throw him up again. It was not proposed to throw any of those wretches who had had their bones fractured and their joints dislocated, up again; it was only proposed that no more should be thrown out of the window. He wanted an end to be put to the practice, not to adopt the reverse of it; but his right hon. friend thought it would be dangerous to put an end to throwing men out of the window immediately; he wished to abolish the practice gradually; it must be done by throwing one hundred to-day, ninety to-morrow, and so on for that the custom had so long continued, that to abolish it immediately would be an unwise measure. So again was the case of his right hon. friend with regard to the running sore; that was not to be stopped at once-no, the blood of these poor negroes was to continue flowing; it was dangerous to stop it, because it had run so long; besides, we were under contract with certain surgeons to allow them a certain supply of human bodies every year for them to try experiments upon, and this we did out of pure love of science! Indeed, the act of the first importation, as well as the continuance of the trade, was a system of horror, to which this House had given birth, and which it was its duty to put an end to by an immediate abolition of this most murderous traffic; and he considered the abolition of the African traffic as the preliminary to, and indeed the sine quâ non of, the improvement of the condition of the negroes in the West Indies; and this led him to look at the abolition as a matter of prudence for the safety of our dominions, for without a plan for the improvement of the condition of the negroes in the plantations, there could be no security for the peace of those territories. A constant importation of the wretched victims from Africa was a constant importation of

evils of the worst kind. It was against the horrors of this negro Jacobinism that he wished the parliament of this country to make provision; every hour in which this was possible was an hour of danger to the dearest interest of the colonies.-He contended that there was no necessity for fresh importations of negroes to cultivate the land originally laid out for the labour of these negroes. The great importation was, for the cultivation of fresh land in Jamaica, which, by the way was four fifths of the trade: this cultivation of fresh land would, according to a moderate calculation, take up above a cen tury to continue importation according to the present rate-a thing insufferable in the bare idea, without talking of the dreadful reality. He then took notice of the language of the assembly of Jamaica, by which it was manifest, they claimed it as a right, that they should continue the Slave trade while they continued loyal to his majesty. He did not understand such conditions of allegiance. He hoped the House would agree to the abolition of this nefarious traffic at once, that being the only adequate remedy. Or, if they did not do so, that they would have it declared, expressly and specifically, for what purpose the trade was to be continued-that the boundary should be marked for the cultivation of the land— that new land should not be cultivated by negroes' labour: for if this was to be allowed, there was no knowing where it was to end. The notion thatthey had a right to cultivate all the lands they had in grants from the crown, was a great error. He would no more allow the cultivation of fresh lands by the labour of newly imported negroes, than he would assent to any new colony being established upon any newly-discovered territory. They were both equally repugnant to the spirit of the resolutions of the House, and repugnant to the terms on which even the planters could pretend that they had a right to the importation of negroes. He hoped if the House should negative this motion, which he trusted it would not, it would in the course of the present session come to a clear and distinct regulation upon the restraint of cultivation of fresh land in the plantations.

Colonel Mark Wood said, that if the question was merely one of humanity, and did not involve the first political as well as commercial considerations, there could not be the smallest difference in opinion

Cold Bath Fields Prison.] March 6. Mr. W. Dundas moved, that a sélect committee be appointed to inquire into the state of his majesty's prison in Cold Bath fields, Clerkenwell, and to report the same as it shall appear to them, together with their opinion thereupon, to the House; and a committee was appointed accordingly. He also moved, that the report of the magistrates to the sessions, the affidavit of the governor of the prison, the letter of the duke of Portland, and the petition of colonel Despard be 'referred to the said committee.

Sir F. Burdett expressed his satisfaction that the matter was likely to become the subject of parliamentary investigation. It made the motion of which he had given notice unnecessary for the present.

East India Budget.] March 12. The House having resolved itself into a committee on the accounts of the East India Company,

upon the subject, as no man, however hardened, but must deprecate a traffic in our fellow creatures; but when we rereflected that this trade had subsisted for upwards of a century; that through it our West-India colonies had in a manner been created, and risen to a degree of opulence unknown at any former period; and when we considered that it was by means of our great and extended commerce that Great Britain was enabled to hold her present high situation amongst nations, we surely must pause before we ever adopted a measure which might prove fatal to the interests of the country. It must be obvious to every person that unless with the concurrence and assistance of the colonial governments it would be impracticable to prevent the importation of slaves from Africa; and that if this was not done by British, it would be done by foreigners to prevent which, half the navy of England would be inadequate. How far the cause of humanity would be forwarded by this change, he wished gentlemen to consider. At present, by means of wise and salutary regulations adopted by parliament, the situation of the Africans had been greatly improved: but over foreigners, parliament had no control; and former cruelties, with aggravated scenes of misery, would return, and the Africans have bitter cause to lament our humane, although mistaken, policy. The only rational way to put a stop to this trade would be to make it the interest of those who carried it on to abandon it. This was to be done by various modes; but the most obvious would be, to impose a pretty high duty on every negro imported into the West Indies; from which fund a premium to be paid on every male and female labourer born and bred upon the islands at a certain age. This would operate towards abolition in a double ratio. He begged leave, however, to deprecate every attempt to abolish the trade by compulsion.

The question being put, "That this House do now resolve itself into a committee of the whole House to consider of that motion;" the House divided:

Mr. Secretary Dundas rose and said :As the nature of these accounts must have become familiar, it would be a waste of time to enter into a detailed description of them in this place, I shall therefore immediately request the attention of the committee to the several observations which have occurred during a close investigation of the many items of resource and expenditure, both actual and esti mated, also of the debts and assets; and to the end that the most clear and distinct information may be afforded, I shall digest and arrange the subject in the same manner as on former occasions; and shall combine the whole, in order to give a general view of the resource and expenditure in India, both on actual account and on estimate. By this method will be ascertained the nett surplus of the Indian revenue, which, with the produce of the sales of imports, &c. forms the fund deemed applicable to the purchase of investments. The advances actually made for commercial purposes, and the amount of cargoes sent to Europe, will then be shown. In the next place, the debts and assets in India, compared with the preceding year. The home accounts will then be brought under remark; and the committee will, in like manner with the foreign, be furnished with explanations of the differences between the estimated and the actual, and of the variations in the debts and assets. And, lastly, I shall draw a general comparison of the debts

and assets, both at home and abroad, in order to arrive at a conclusion, as accurate as possible, as to the state of affairs, contrasted with the last year. Having fulfilled these intentions, I shall only have occasion to trespass a little farther on the time of the committee, by requesting their attention to a few observations applying to the company's affairs generally, both with regard to the Indian possessions, and to the state of the commerce.-Mr. Dundas then went through the following state