their own country, remarkably hofpitable and kind. What do they not feel on being separated from their friends and connections and native country? Witnefs their arts of fuicide on fhip board, and that expedient which is provided in the very conftruction of a Slave fhip, to prevent their terminating an existence, become too painful to be endured: Their attachrnent to their masters, when kindly treated, is acknowledged by our opponents, and a thousand other proofs might be adduced of their poffeffing all the beft feelings of our nature. No, Sir; it is we, that must confefs ourselves deficient in tenderness. From thefe defpifed 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 compaffion, and borrow the sympathies of a nature fuperior in fenfibility to our own.

I must fay a word or two concerning the terms of my motion, which differs a little from that of laft year. Gentlemen may concur with me in my vote who approve of a bill for deferring the period of Abolition. My conviction of the indifpenfable neceffity of immediately ftopping 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 deftroying this fyftem of iniquity. I am fure too, Sir, that the immediate Abolition of the Slave Trade is to be justified on the principles of found policy. Let it not be thought, Sir, either of my Right Honourable Friend, who fits near me, or of myself, that it was for our own fakes that we went into that minute detail, and thofe laborious calculations; from a fenfe of duty we condefcended to fuch ignoble drudgery, but we appealed ourselves to more fimple and more exalted principles; where the commands of justice and humanity are fo imperious, I know not how to admit of parley or of compromife. Let those who talk of allowing three or four years to the continuance of the Slave Trade, think of the difgraceful scenes that paffed last year. For myself, however, I will wash my hands of the

blood

blood that would be fpilled in this horrid interval: I wi proteft against its being granted, as the moft flagrant violation of every principle of juftice and humanity. I cannot but believe, that the hour is at length come, when we shall put a final period to the exiftence of this unchriftian traffic; but if in this fond expectation, I fhould be unhappily mistaken, be affured, Sir, I never will defert the caufe, but to the laft moment of my life, I will exert my utmost powers in the fervice of that unhappy country. In truth, if I were not to persevere. I must be dead to every generous emotion that can actuate, Can a noble object intereft ?

and ftimulate the mind of man. or the consciousness of an honourable office? What object fo noble as this of relieving the miferies of thoufands upon thoufands of our fellow creatures; introducing chriftianity and civilization to a fourth part of the habitable globe. I am, indeed, confcious of the honourable nature of the office I have undertaken, and grateful to God for having pe rmitted me to take the lead in the communication of such extended bleffings. My talk is one in which it is impoffible to tire; my work repays itself, it fills my mind with complacency and peace. Ilie down with it at night with compofure, and rife to it in the morning with alacrity. If it obliges me to be converfant with scenes of wretchedness, this is but like vifiting an hofpital from motives of humanity, where your own feelings repay you for the pain you undergo. No Sir, no; I never will defift from this bleffed work; but I cannot help perfuading myself, that there will be no call for my perfeverance; I will not allow myself to doubt about the issue, and cheerfully wait the event of your decifion.

Mr. Wilberforce then moved.

"That it is the opinion of this Committee, that the trade carried on by British fubjects, for the purpose of obtaining Slaves on the coaft of Africa, ought to be abolished.”

Were this motion carried, Mr. Wilberforce gave notice that he intended to follow it up by another.

"That the Chairman be directed to move the Houfe for leave to bring in a bill for the Abolition of the Slave Trade." MR. BAILIE

MR. BAILLIE. It is upon the certainty of meeting with every species of indulgence that is usually granted, by this Honourable House, to all its new Members, that I muster confidence fufficient to offer my humble opinion upon the present question; a queftion, Sir, of the greatest importance that ever came before Parliament, novel and fpeculative in its nature, and supported by fome of the greateft orators who have ever appeared within the walls of this House: there is no man living entertains a more indifferent opinion of his own abilities than I do; and I feel moft fenfibly, and with great mortification, the infufficiency of my powers, when brought into comparison with the brilliant parts of the Honourable Gentlemen with whom I have to contend. However, Sir, being very particularly fituated as Agent to one of the most valuable of our islands, having paffed the most active part of my life in the Weft Indies, having in the British Weft-India Islands a confiderable property, both in land and Negroes, and being at the fame time as much interested in the general welfare and prosperity of the trade, the manufactures, and the navigation of Great Britain, as any Gentleman in the present Parliament, I flatter myself that this Honourable Houfe will not confider my interference as improper; efpecially, Sir, when I can affure the Honourable Committee, that I confider the present Question as involving in its confequences a confiderable proportion of the trade and navigation of Great Britain, and the very exiftence of thofe valuable West India Colonies, which have been established by this country. for upwards of a century, nourished, cherished, and fupported, under various Acts of Parliament, and at the expence of a very serious and weighty outlay of money. I will not, Sir, at this early stage of my argument, make any observations upon the defcription of people who have fo very eagerly, and with fo much zeal and industry, propagated and brought forward this unfortunate and impolitic Question, I will content myself by obferving, that they have very artfully placed the management of the business in the hands of an Honourable Gentleman, refpectable in his character, and amiable in his manners, and for whofe private virtues no man entertains a greater value than I do this Gentleman, Sir, is the known

and avowed and friend and favourite of the Right Honourable Gentleman who fo very ably, and fo worthily prefides at the head of the Administration of this country. His arguments, upon a former occafion, operated upon the Minister's mind, and at the fame time extended their effects to the mind of the Right Honourable Gentleman who makes fo very confpicuous a figure upon the oppofite fide of the Houfe; there is neither in or out of Parliament, Sir, a man who is a greater admirer of the incomparable and brilliant abilities of thefe Right Honourable Gentlemen, than I am; I confider them, Sir, an ornament to this Houfe, and an ornament to ther country; but however I may be difpofed to bow, with all due fubmiffion, to their opinions upon other occafions, yet upon the prefent question I differ with them moft effentially; I mean, Sir, I differ with the opinions they gave upon the former investigation of the queftion; for, from the circumstances that have occurred in the Hiftory of the Western World, fince the close of the last Seffion of Parliament, I flatter myself that they are now made fully fenfible of the evil and dangerous tendency of the measure. However, Sir, to come to the Right Honourable Gentleman in a Ministerial capacity, I do maintain, without meaning any perfonal offence whatever, that the part they acted, upon the Question's being debated in Parliament laft year, was unexpected, very unbecoming their high characters, and not at all confiftent with the principles upon which, in my humble opinion, great Statesmen ought to act.

I conceive it, Sir, to be the indifpenfible duty of men in high fituations, and who are, or may be, intrufted with the lead of public affairs, to confider the general intereft of the State, and of individuals, with a moft fcrupulous and attentive eye, and to fee that the good policy of the country, and the good understanding that has long fubfifted betwixt Government and our 'fubjects in our diftant colonies, under the fanction and protection of various Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain, should not be broken in upon by fuch a wild, fuch an impracticable, and fuch a vifionary fcheme, as the prefent question for abolishing the African Slave-Trade. I flatter myfelf, Mr. Chairmans that the friends and promoters of the Abolition would have contented themselves with the mischiefs that had already arifen, in confequence

confequence of the agitation of that unfortunate measure, and that the fanguinary difpofitions of a certain description of people, would have been fully fatiated with the innocent blood that has already been spilt; but, alas! Sir, that is not likely to be the cafe, many of them have been known and heard to exult at the calamities we daily read of, so that in all probability, the mifchief is only done in part, and it requires the total defolation and deftruction of the Weft-India colonies of Great Britain to compleat the melancholy fcene. I have in my hand, Mr. Chairman, a small pamphlet, printed and published by order of the Weft-India Planters and Merchants, for the use and information of the Members of both Houfes of Parliament; it contains, Sir, the speech of the Deputies of St. Domingo to the National Affembly of France, and also the speech of M. Boftrand, the late Minifter of the Marine Colonies, to the faid Affembly, upon the infurrection of the Negroes in that island: If, Sir, the deftruction of the most extenfive and most vaJuable colony in the world, the maffacre of its inhabitants, the ravishing of the most beautiful part of the creation in a manner hitherto unknown and unheard of, and the unnatural murder of fathers, by the hands of their own children, are fufficient to operate upon the feelings of humanity, there is not, Sir, I am perfuaded, a Gentleman in this House, who can withstand the fhock; but to me, who have a personal knowledge of the theatre of thefe dreadful scenes, and who (though an Englifhman, and at St. Domingo in the very glorious and fuccessful war that was carried on, under the auspices. of that great and immortal Statesman Lord Chatham) received distinguished marks of kindness and hospitality from many of those families, who by the late melancholy events have been tranfmitted to oblivion, they are doubly afflicting; and when I bring to my recollection, Sir, that the caufes of all thefe calamities have originated in Great Britain, I am overwhelmed with for

row.

The island of St. Domingo, Mr. Chairman, is as large as the kingdom of England. In the year 1789, the imports into the colony from France, exceeded three millions fterling, exclufive of near thirty thoufand Negroes, which at a very moderate valuation, may be estimated at two millions fterling more; the exports from the colony, in the fame year, amounted in va