looked forward to fuch an event with anxiety and alarm. Could the House then depend upon the regular execution of fuch regulations by perfons who held them in fo obnoxious. a light? Indeed to attempt pointing out and enforcing fuch minute regulations by pofitive laws was impracticable. On those reasons, he was led to conclude, that the condition of flavery was far from what he was informed it was under thofe humane regulations. Were these regulations even to. be applied to horfes, the performance of them would be impoffible. Some might require a greater or less quantity of food, others a different quality;-fome would stand in need of much tenderness and medical care: all these minutia it was impoffible to prescribe by pofitive laws. But an abolition of the trade would accommodate itself to all these requifites, by making it the interest of mafters to give the due degree of food, correction, care, &c. to their flaves, which he would be more uniformly reminded of by his intereft than by the uncertain workings of his humanity. He would then calculate his wealth, not fo much on the quantity of fugar as on the quantity of the flaves, increased by kind and humane treatment. Some even of the opposers of the measure confefs themselves that an abfolute abolition would do much good, or at leaft that much good has been done, and the treatment of flaves much meliorated fince this question has been firft agitated. He had agreed to poftpone the present motion, to give time for infpection of the papers prefented by his Honourable Friend below him (Mr. Dundas); but he knew that much was not to be expected from their perufal; and those who had voted against his propofition, on the fuppofition that the colonial affemblies. would put an end to the Slave Trade, must, from those very papers, fee that they had proceeded upon false grounds. Mr. Wilberforce again recurred to the arguments formerly urged by the agent for Jamaica (Mr. Sewell), and to his ftatements of the quantity of land that ftill remained uncultivated. By that Gentleman it was argued, that the trade must be carried on fo long as a fingle acre was left uncultivated. For the truth of what he advanced upon this fubject Mr. Wilberforce appealed to the proceedings of the council and affembly of Jamaica. It was estimated that in 1788 the number of acres that the island of Jamaica contained amounted to about 3,500,000; of thefe there remained between a fourth and a fifth wholly uncultivated; that is to fay, there remained to be cultivated about 2,680,000 acres-Taking this ftatement to be correct, and knowing that the number of flaves hitherto imported into that Island No. 26. amounted 6 L amounted to about 600,000, it followed, that if the uncul tivated part of the Island took as long to cultivate it as the other part did, it would of courfe be about 300 years before the trade could be abolished, and the number of additional flaves to be imported would be about 2,400,000. Was fuch a number of human beings to depend upon the propofed regulations? He ridiculed in a very pointed manner their applying the word labourers to their flaves, as if their condition in a state of flavery, and the treatment it subjected them to, could permit them to be confounded with the defcriptions of perfons defigned by the denomination of labourers in other countries where they enjoyed the full and impartial protection of the laws. The colonial affemblies had undoubtedly ftated themselves very fairly and openly, that whatever regulations they might make they had not the most diftant attention of abolishing the trade. This was their language "We can with truth affure Your Majefty, that no opportunity, no circumftance, which may enable the affembly of Jamaica to make further provifions to fecure to every perfon in this Ifland the certain, immediate, and active protection of the law, in proportion to their improvement in morality and religion, fhall be neglected; but we must at the fame time declare, that we are actuated by motives of humanity only, and not with any view to the termination of the Slave Trade. "The right of obtaining labourers from Africa is fecured to Your Majefty's faithful fubjects in this colony by feveral British Acts of Parliament, and by feveral Proclamations of Your Majesty's royal ancestors. They, or their predeces fors, have emigrated, and fettled in Jamaica, under the most folemn promises of this (abfolutely neceffary) affiftance; and they can never give up, or do any act, that may render doubtful this effential right. "We have the utmoft reliance on Your Majefty's paternal goodness, that this right fhall remain inviolate, as long as they fhall remain faithful to Your Majefty, and true to the allegiance they owe to the Imperial Crown of Great Britain." Mr. Wilberforce next animadverted on the arguments ufed by the generality of the friends to the Slave Trade. They acknowledged that they have the profits of it, but they contend that the guilt and fhame of it (if there be any fuch thing) belong to the British Parliament. The African trade, they fay, is purely British, and that they only buy what Great Britain fells. This is their falvo for their confciences. There furely were arguments and observations to which it behoved behoved the Houfe anxioufly to attend, if they felt any tendernefs for their honour and character. While the profits are on one fide, and the guilt and fhame on the other-can it be well expected that the affembly of Jamaica will ever cordially co-operate in abolishing this trade? does it not say that the profits of the trade are with the planter; that the guilt and fhame of it is with Parliament; that one-fourth only of Jamaica is cultivated; and that a fufficient number of flaves must still be imported to cultivate the remainder? And was it not a fact that flaves had been imported, and applied to the cultivation of new lands, a ground which was pretended to be given up long ago? There was no man who would venture to difpute this, and therefore he wished Gentlemen not to misunderstand each other. Then was it not better at once to come to a perfect understanding upon the matter, and not continue to wafte the time and breath of the Houfe in difcuffing it any longer? If indeed it was the intention of Gentlemen to extend and increase the trade, inftead of limiting and abolishing it, and to revoke all they had faid of humanity, of morality and religion, and declare at once, as their avowed principle, that mere interest was the guide of their conduct-was due attention then paid to the immenfe mafs of evil which refulted from promoting this narrow, miferable intereft? He was by no means difpofed to concede to the oppofers of the abolition, that if the trade was put an end to, that it would in any degree injure the West India Islands; on the contrary, thofe who had given the fubject the moft confideration were of opinion that the Weft India planters were bound in intereft. as well as in duty to abolish this traffic in human flesh. It was not his intention now to go into the arguments which he had made use of on a former occafion; but he only begged to remind the Houfe, that he and thofe who thought with him had condefcended, he would fay, to go into the utmost minutenefs; they had fhewn that in Jamaica the mortality had ceafed-it was proved at that time that the flaves imported into America had increased-that those imported into Bencoolen, fuppofed to be the unhealthieft part of the world, had increafed-that the Caribs of St. Vincent and the Maroons of Jamaica had also increased. At that time too, a Gentleman of the name of Anderfon, who had the care of about 5000 flaves, had faid, that in general they had increased throughout the island. Now, if Gentlemen were in earnest, he called upon them to ftate upon what grounds they were determined to stand. Though perhaps he might fafely leave the fubject here, yet he could not con6L2 clude clude without bringing before the view of the Houfe what formed the ftrength of all; and he did it because fome Gentlemen here, purfuing the fame mode of conduct as thofe in the islands, looked only to the Weft Indies, forgetting what was the fituation of the continent from which the flaves were brought. If Gentlemen were willing that at any time, and under any circumftances, the trade ought to be abolished, he wifhed they would ftate their meaning dif tinctly, fo as to enable him to find out the real ground upon which the question was to be decided. Though he conceived he might now leave the fubject, and not intrude any longer upon the Houfe, yet he fhould trefpafs upon their attention for a few minutes, by faying a few words upon a part of the queftion in which he confidered the ftrength of the cafe to lie. His Honourable Friend belew him (Mr. Pitt) had on a former occafion condefcended to follow this view of the fubject' into a minutenefs of calculation which rendered it unneceffary for him to enlarge upon it, but he could not conclude without adverting to the queftion, as it respected the vast continent of Africa. Those who oppofed the abolition, looked too much to its effects upon the inte refts of the West India planters, while they threw a veil over the horrid cruelties which it engendered among the unhappy natives of Africa; where its effects had been to arm Chieftain against Chieftain, to produce inceffant wars, and to tranfmit relentless feuds from generation to genera tion-to prompt individuals to every fpecies of depredation and barbarity. It was known that fuch was the conftant hoftility carried on in that unhappy continent, that the na tives were obliged to go about armed, for fear of being furprifed for the purpofe of being made flaves. It was notorious that the defire of furnishing flaves for the European market was the conftant, and he believed, almost the only cause of the wars in Africa. It could not be denied, that this infamous trade had tainted the administration of justice there, and had led to the invention of new crimes, in order to furnish new victims for fale. For the crime which was the most fertile fource of traffic for the European Factor, was that of witchcraft, which had no other reality than of procuring them flaves. When he reflected that a few little iflands, which were mere fpecks on the ocean, were the caufe of all this wide fpread mifery and defolation, he could hardly find terms in which to exprefs his abhorrence of fuch an iniquitous fyftem, nor his furprife that it should for a moment find an advocate among any who valued, or pretended to, the feelings of humanity. It was generally a true true obfervation, that the inhabitants of the fea coaft of every country were the moft civilized and enlightened. But it was the peculiar nature of this detefted trade, to reverse thofe principles which had been deemed the most unalter able. Along a coaft of 3500 miles, nothing was to be seen but mifery and barrennefs-moral barrennefs and the vilest degradation; and from their prefent intercourfe with Europeans, they poffeffed all the vices of polifhed fociety, in conjunction with all the ignorance and ferocity of the rudeft barbarifm. But if the traveller penetrated into the interior of the country, where the face of a white man had probably never been seen before, every circumftance was reverfed. Some of the pernicious effects of their intercourse with the natives of the coaft might indeed be ftill perceived-for at the deepest bottom of the immenfe ocean, fome degree of undulation arofe from the furious agitation of the furfacebut their fituation was comparatively tranquil and happy. They were united into great cities, had fchools, men of letters-in fhort, were advanced two or three hundred years beyond the others in knowledge and civilization. But But there were two more arguments which he must beg leave to prefs upon the attention of the Houfe, and which would fhew that it was more incumbent on them at the prefent moment than at any other, to weigh well their decifion on the question now before them. They must recollect that we are now engaged in a war of a peculiar nature, and that with a foreign nation, of new principles and new difpofitions. Our principles and difpofitions are wholly oppofite to thofe on which that nation is faid to act. from whatever principles that enemy may be fuppofed to act, they have at least put an end to a traffic which we have fo often ftigmatifed as infamous and unjuft. What a spectacle, therefore, fhall not this country exhibit to surrounding nations, when they obferved, that those who speak fo emphatically of morality, juftice and humanity, after they had refolved to part with a trade which they confeffed to be incompatible with all thefe principles, take it back again, and hug it closer than ever! If there were any beings of a nature different from us, who obferved what was passing in this world, how ftrange muft it appear to them to fee a nation calling itself civilized and profeffing humanity, perfifting in carrying on fuch a traffic-a traffic which affects our interefts and our fafety as much as it degrades our character. Examples of all times proved that vice never produced fecurity or profperity. There was a difpenfation of human events, a connexion between moral caufes and ef fects, |