is of whites to be oppofed to them. Where is this to stop? Do you feriously mean to continue this fyftem? I fhould really have thought the Weft India Gentlemen would themfelves have implored us, if we had entertained no fuch design, to arreft the further progrefs of this growing and pernicious malady. Thus, fir, were the SAFETY of the Islands only in queftion, you could not but agree to my propofition.

But I must recur to what I before laid down, that these importations do not tend more to produce confufion and diforder than to retain the unhappy flaves themselves in their actual state of wretchedness and degradation. It is this that would even render it unfafe to punish white men for the ill treatment of their flaves, except very rarely and in the most atrocious inftances. But furely, Sir, we cannot bear to leave these poor creatures thus funk below the level of their fpecies; and I am perfuaded the West India Gentlemen themselves would be glad to afford them relief; they would be glad, I truft, to put them under protection of laws, but this must be done rationally and foberly. After what I have faid, I am not afraid of being told I defign to emancipate the slaves; I will not indeed deny that I wish to impart to them the bleffings of freedom; who is there that knows their value, but muft join with me in this defire? But the freedom I mean is that of which at present they, alas! are not capable. True Liberty is the child of Reafon and of Order; it is indeed a plant of celeftial growth, but the foil must be prepared for its reception he that would fee it flourish, and bring forth its proper fruits, muft not think it fufficient to let it shoot as it will in unreftrained licentiousness:

Luxuriantia compefcet, nimis afpera fano

Lævabit cultu, virtute carentia tollet.

Would you then impart to them these ineftimable benefits, take away that cause which at present obftructs their introduction; nor would the good effects of stopping the importations be confined to the flaves, nor would the fafety of the Islands only

be

be thereby promoted, it would tend to the planter's benefit in another view by the facility of purchasing African flaves he is often drawn into fresh expences, he is at length plunged into inextricable embarrassments, and wishes at length this Channel of Supply had been shut up from him. This evil also was infifted on by Mr. Long, the Hiftorian of Jamaica, who actually proposed a temporary prohibition of the importation of African flaves with a view to its prevention. I hope it will not be deemed invidious that I fo often quote the work of this Gentleman, but rather a proof of the respect I pay to its authority, and I appeal to it the more willingly, because it was written long before the Abolition of the Slave Trade had become the subject of public difcuffion. But I frankly acknowledge that the confideration of the planter's benefit, from ftopping the importations, does not intereft me in any degree fo much as that to be thence derived by the unhappy slaves. Lofing by degrees the painful recollection of their native and early connections, conceiving new attachments to their dwelling places, to their families, to their masters, they would gradually rife in the fcale of beings; no longer ready every moment to start into infurrections, they would cease to be the continual objects of the planter's jealousy and suspicion; it would be no longer necessary for the general fafety to extinguish in them the principle of moral agency; they would feel more refpectable in themselves and be more refpected by others, and by degrees, the harshness of their present bondage being transformed into the mildnefs of patriarchal fervitude, they would become capable of ftill greater bleffings and more ennobling privileges: and Gentlemen will obferve it is the peculiar merit of this Plan, that though its full effects cannot be produced at once, we are all the while tending to their complete enjoyment, with a uniform and uninterrupted courfe. The flaves will daily grow happier, the Islands fafer, the planters richer; the whole will be like the progrefs of vegetation, the effects are not at first perceptible, but the great principle operating in ten thousand ways, will gradually change the whole face of things, and substitute fertility and beauty in

the

3

the place of barrennefs and defolation. Who is there that contemplates this delightful profpect, but must long to have it realized? It is, I am perfuaded, our common with, our univerfal, our impatient expectation.

But it was formerly urged that this was a remedy which however defirable in itself, the Islands were not as yet in a state to admit. It was contended that they could not keep up their numbers without farther importations from Africa; that were these ftopped, their gangs would continually be growing weaker and weaker, until at length their eftates fhould be thrown wholly out of cultivation. When the queftion of Abolition was last before the Houfe, I went into this subject so much at large, that I need only now advert to what I then urged; if it be thought neceffary I fhall repeat and confirm it. It was then made out by my Right Honourable Friend with his ufual accuracy, and that too from documents furnished by our opponents themselves, that the Islands were actually keeping up their Stocks of Slaves. His calculations, fo far from being refuted, have not, that I know of, even been denied; and the fact was confirmed by the positive teftimony of a Gentleman of great experience examined in the Ifland of Jamaica. I fhewed you that it had taken place under every poffible circumftance of disadvantage; that the various evils under which the flaves laboured, and above all the general inattention to the breeding fyftem, would have led us to expect a great decrease; but that in fpite of them all, great and numerous as they were, an increase having begun to take place, we were warranted in believing that the amendment of one or two particulars out of many, would alone be fufficient to render the increase rapid; and we found that Negro Slaves had actually increafed confiderably in various countries, and climates, and fituations, many of them extremely ill adapted to their conftitutions. I pointed out also many modes whereby, if it fhould be deemed neceffary, the chafim could be filled up which fome might think would be occafioned by immediate abolition: a great fupply. of hands might be obtained by turning into the field fome of

the

the fuperfluous domeftics, with whofe immenfe number every Gentleman who knew any thing of the West Indies was perfectly acquainted. Improvements in machinery were fuggefted; the transfer of the lands from fugar to cotton, which requiring fewer hands would let loose a number of labourers for other purposes; thefe and other modes were propofed, whereby the quantity of laborious industry might receive supplies. But what above all other circumftances I must now infift on, is this: that five years importations have fince taken place; had there therefore been any fmall error in the calculations of my Right Honourable Friend, or had I strained my fubfidiary arguments a little too far, it is impoffible to deny but that this must now be more than rectified, and that the Iflands are at length in a state to suffer not even a temporary inconvenience from the admiffion of this falutary expedient. If therefore you have any regard for the happiness of the flaves, or for the fafety of the Islands; nay if you are even dead to these powerful incentives, and were alive only to confiderations of the planters intereft, you could not but confent to the measure I recommend to you, of flopping the further importation of African Slaves.

And now, Sir, abstaining for a while from thofe topics, which I confefs are after all the nearest to my heart, I will flightly touch on what was originally faid to be other disadvantages that would follow from the Abolition. I wish to add up every poffible item before I proceed to place any thing on the opposite side of the account, by this mode it will more plainly appear how much the balance is in my favour. It was originally urged that the African trade was a nursery for seamen, and that its abolition would therefore be highly injurious to its naval ftrength; this part of the fubject was very early taken up by a Gentleman whose services in the whole of this great caufe can never be over-rated (I need hardly say I allude to Mr. Clarkfon); he afferted, as the refult of a long and laborious inquiry, that of the failors employed in the African trade, between a fifth and a fixth actually died, and that they feldom brought home more than half of their ori

ginal

ginal crews. Nothing was more vehemently repelled or more obftinately refifted than these positions, till at length having long borne with thefe clamorous contradictions, we moved last year for the mufter rolls, documents prepared by our opponents themselves, and kept in their poffeffion, and which cannot therefore be supposed to have been fabricated to ferve our purpose from these Mr. Clarkson's calculations were fully juftified. It appeared that of 12,263 persons, the number of the original crews, there had died 2,643, the average length of their voyages being twelve months; whilft on the contrary in the Weft India trade, in which the length of the voyage was seven months, of 7,640, the number of the original crews, there had died but 118. But the lofs by deaths was not the whole loss to the country; for befides the broken conftitutions of the furvivors, which rendered many of them for the reft of their lives incapable of the duties of their profeffion, fo many left their ships in confequence of ill usage, that they seldom brought home more than half of the perfons they had taken out. This last circumstance was attempted to be accounted for, from the natural capriciousness of failors; and it was faid that they ran away in as great number from the West India as from the Guinea fhips. The direct contrary appeared from the mufter rolls, and this too, though from the different ways of paying them in the two trades, their forfeiting little or nothing by quitting the West India men, but much by quitting the Guinea men, the reverse might be naturally expected. I could fay much more on this fubject, and in particular I could open to you fuch scenes of cruelty to these unhappy men, as muft excite at once the concern and indignation of every man who feels for that mass of his fellow citizens to which this nation owes fo much of her fafety and of her honour. But I will abstain from this painful detail, and only repeat what I just now obferved, that in the outfet of this business nothing was more obftinately denied than our now no longer controverted affertions concerning the loss of feamen. This may ferve to procure us credit on those points which are ftill in difpute, and

prove