persuaded that the slave trade can find no other resting place. And, give me leave to say, that the advocates for this inhuman traffick, acted more honestly, and fairly, and openly, whilst they took their stand here, than they do now in continuing to contend after they have been forced to abandon the premises. Oh! sir, for their own happiness, it were to have been wished, that these poor creatures had not been possessed of human feelings! but they have shown to the contrary, by ten thousand different proofs. They are confessed to be, in their own country, remarkably hospitable and kind. What do they not feel on being separated from their friends and connexions and native country? Witness their acts of suicide on ship board, and that expedient which is provided in the very construction of a slave ship, to prevent their terminating an existence, become too painful to be endured. Their attachment to their masters, when kindly treated, is acknowledged by our opponents, and a thousand other proofs might be adduced of their possessing all the best feelings of our nature. No, sir, it is we, that must confess ourselves deficient in tenderness. From these despised beings, whom we would degrade to the level of the brute creation, let us discover what it is to have human feelings; let us learn from them the mystery of compassion, and borrow the sympathies of a nature superiour in sensibility

to our own.

I must say a word or two concerning the terms of my motion, which differs a little from that of last year. Gentlemen may concur with me in my vote who approve of a bill for deferring the period of abolition. My conviction of the indispensable necessity of im, mediately stopping this trade, remains however as strong and unshaken as ever; I can admit of no compromise, and will avail myself of any opportunity of at once destroying this system of iniquity. I am sure too, that the immediate abolition of the slave trade is to be justified on the principles of sound policy. Let it not be thought, sir, either of my right honourable

friend, who sits near me, or of myself, that it was for our own sakes that we went into that minute detail, and those laborious calculations; from a sense of duty we condescended to such ignoble drudgery, but we appeated ourselves to more simple and more exalted principles. Where the commands of justice and humanity are so imperious, I know not how to admit of parley or of compromise. Let those who talk of allowing three or four years to the continuance of the slave trade, think of the disgraceful scenes that passed last year. For myself however, I will wash my hands of the blood that would be spilled in this horrid interval. I will protest against its being granted, as the most flagrant violation of every principle of justice and humanity. I cannot but believe, that the hour is at length come, when we shall put a final period to the existence of this unchristian traffick. But if in this fond expectation I should be unhappily mistaken, be assured, sir, I never will desert the cause; but to the last moment of my life, I will exert my utmost powers in the service of that unhappy country. In truth, if I were not to persevere, I must be dead to every generous emotion that can actuate, and stimulate the mind of man. Can a noble object interest? or the consciousness of an honourable office? What object so noble as this of relieving the miseries of thousands upon thousands of our fellow creatures; introducing christianity and civilization to a fourth part of the habitable globe? I am, indeed, conscious of the honourable nature of the office I have undertaken, and grateful to God for having permitted me to take the lead in the communication of such extended blessings. My task is one in which it is impossible to tire; my work repays itself: it fills my mind with complacency and peace. I lie down with it at night with composure, and rise to it in the morning with alacrity. If it obliges me to be conversant with scenes of wretchedness, this is but like visiting a hospital from motives of humanity, where

your own feelings repay you for the pain you undergo. No, sir, no; I never will desist from this blessed work; but I cannot help persuading myself, that there will be no call for my perseverance. I will not allow myself to doubt about the issue, and cheerfully wait the event of your decision.

MR. FOX'S SPEECH,

DELIVERED ON THE SECOND OF APRIL 1792, IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON A MOTION MADE FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE.

WE are induced to give a place to the speech of Mr.

Fox on the abolition of the slave trade, not as a specimen of ornamented eloquence, but with a view of recording the sentiments of an enlightened statesman, strongly and unreservedly expressed on a very momentous subject, and one which hereafter may become peculiarly interesting to the United States.

The opposition of Mr. Fox to this odious traffick was chiefly confined to the grounds of its injustice and cruelty.

Entertaining a deep sense of its unrighteousness, he uniformly contended that no political necessity, or any consideration of private benefit, could justify its continuance for a moment.

Were it practicable, he said, to divest servitude in the colonies of its severities so as to render it a condition superiour to that enjoyed by the Africans in their native state, or by the lower ranks of society in the best portions of Europe, still, as the trade violated their rights, and compelled their submission, it could be sanctioned by no country which properly appreciated its honour, or regarded the maxims of a policy, pure, liberal, and magnanimous.

SIR,

SPEECH, &c.

WE have certainly never heard a more severe or efficacious resistance to the abolition of the slave

trade than has just been made by the speech of the right honourable gentleman.* There is indeed, sir, something so much more mischievous, and something so much more like a foundation contained in the proposition submitted to the house for preserving, not only for years to come, but for aught I know for ever, that detestable traffick, that I cannot excuse myself from stating with the utmost plainness the grounds upon which I act in this most important concern. I must, with all the zeal and force of which I am master, deprecate all such deceptions and delusions upon the country. They may not be inten tionally such, but I must call every thing deception and delusion, which may prevent the committee from seeing the business in its true light; from seeing what alone is and must be the question: Whether this execrable slave trade, is fit to be continued, or must be abolished?

The honourable gentlemen, call themselves mode rate men, but upon this subject, I confess, I neither feel, nor desire to feel, any thing like the sentiment of moderation. Sir, to talk of moderation, upon this matter, reminds me of a passage in Middleton's Life of Cicero. He says, "to enter a man's house and kill him, his wife, and family, in the night, is certainly a most heinous crime, aud deserving of death. But to break open his house, to murder him, his wife and all his children, in the night, may still be very right, provided it is done with moderation."

This is absurd, it will be said; and yet, sir, it is not so absurd as to say the slave trade may be carried on with moderation. For if you cannot break into a a single house, if you cannot rob and murder a single man, with moderation; with what moderation can you break up a whole country? Can you pillage and

*M. Dundas.

+ Refers to the proposition of gradual abolition of the trade.

The supporters of the proposition of gradual abolition.