Sir J. Dalling, Sir Archibald Campbell, Mr. Baillie, Mr. Hibbert, and a long lift of refpectable characters. If I was to analyse the bulk of the evidence, I fhould exhauft the patience of the Committee, in contrafting the ignorance, the malice, and fanaticism of fome, with the veracity, the ingenuouínefs, and the candour of others. In fhort, I fhould exhibit, if I gave a true picture, a variegated view of the fair and foul principles which dignify and debafe the human mind.

I have no small degree of fatisfaction refulting from the opportunity the Honourable Gentleman, who opened this day's debate, has afforded me, of juftifying a refpectable body of my constituents. He has been pleafed to enlarge upon the loffes fuftained on the paffage from Africa to the West Indies. Notwithstanding his calculations, his fabrications, or his comments, I can pledge myself to this House, and this country, in afferting and maintaining the average lofs per cent. does not exceed four and a half, fince the regulations were imposed on the Slave Ships. If we advert to the voyages of the King's troops, or the transportation to Botany Bay, the comparison is highly favourable to the African Trade.

Another affertion of the Hon. Gentleman's I beg leave likewife to repel. He ftill chooses to enlarge the mortality amongst the feamen, and from thence draws an inference prejudicial to the Town of Liverpool, and City of Briftol.-For the former of those ports (and we may conclude that the fame trade is conducted in the fame manner as at the latter) I must again repeat what I had the honour to deliver to the House last

year, as there is no event which gives me reason to doubt its veracity :"The Liverpool African Trade is, in proportion to the num"ber of hands it employs, the most productive nursery for "feamen that belongs to the Commerce of this country. For, "admitting for a moment the exaggerated calculations which "have gone abroad, of the mortality of the Seamen employed " in this Trade; admitting that 642, out of 3170 perfons, die "in the voyage of one year; admitting farther, that half this "mortality falls upon that half of the crew which is compofed "of Seamen and Officers, and confequently that 321 Seamen perifhed in the courfe of one year's voyage, yet as 1585

"Landsmen

Landfimen from the fingle port of Liverpool alone, in fpite "of that fabricated mortality, contributes annually, by means "of this Trade, an augmentation of 943 perfons to the Navy "of Great Britain."

I fhall not trefpaís longer on the patience of the Committee, farther than making one more obfervation on the Hon. Gentleman's Speech, in which fo little novelty occurred. He was pleafed to fay that white people, and the failors in particular, could work in the Weft Indies.-In anfwer to that affertion, I fhall refer to what I deem go d authority-the teftimony of many refpectable Officers. It would be tirefome to enumerate the names of all the Officers who have ferved in that part of the world, for they generally, I believe, without a single exception, maintain the truth of what I advance.-If he does not like Naval or Military Authorities, I will indulge the Honourable Gentleman with other proofs of my affertion. It has been found by experience that the natives of Europe could not endure any labour under the intemperate heat of the Weft Indies. -Frequent attempts have been made to cultivate eftates with white labourers. In this experiment the French are said to have loft 12,000 whites in the year 1763. The Assembly of Jamaica offered great encouragement in the year 1749, to induce white families to fettle in that Ifland, but of the few that went, in ten years there were no remains.

With refpect to the value of the African and West India Trade to this country, examined either feparately or collectively, no perfon has yet prefumed to doubt the benefits derived from them. The Manufacturers and Merchants of this country find their intereft materially allied to the exiftence of the former; and though, on a prior occafion, the Honourable Gentleman who moved the question was pleafed to ftyle the African Trade "a Lottery at Liverpool," it has been found by experience to be generally a profitable concern, and that the morals and fortunes of the individuals, who enter into it, are not fo much deb fed and ruined, as those of their` neighbours, by their connections with the ftate lottery of this country.

By

By an Abolition, several hundred fhips, feveral thousand failors, and fome millions of industrious mechanics, will lofe their employment, and be rendered worse than useless; for a fudden chaẩm of this fort will undoubtedly prove of the most dangerous confequences to fociety.

A yearly deficit of fix millions, which is the lowest average, and admitted by all fides of the House, and which will fall on the manufacturers, fhip-builders, and a large body of the working people, will be fenfibly felt in this country, though her industry and commerce flourish almost beyond calcula tion. And if I add to this defalcation of our commerce and revenue, the lofs of our Colonies, which are estimated at feventy millions, which, from the beft authorities, are totally dependent on the African Trade, what new discovery or contrivance is to remedy an evil which would palfy the very exiftence of the national profperity?

The oppofition to the question now before the House, is fo connected with the well-being and good government of this country, that if I was an enemy to the Constitution of England, which has been the work of ages, and which, though a good, all must acknowledge to be a very complicated, machine, I would vote for the Abolition of the African Trade. It certainly will be allowed, that a government, constituted like the one we now enjoy, is a new work in the annals of mankind. The great extent of commerce and credit, and the stupendous national debt, which overfhades the revenue of Great Britain, are circumstances to which we can find no parallel in hiftory. Through the medium of science, and the extenfion of labour and manufactures, we are enabled to penetrate into every country, to become the merchants of every state, and the citizens of every clime.

To our commercial fuccefs, therefore, we may fairly attri bute our great increase of power, wealth, and confequence; and our public and national debt has unfortunately, whether from error in Government, or not, I will not pretend to decide, kept pace with that power, that wealth, and that confequence. If, therefore, we attempt to circumfcribe the means which have enabled us to arrive at the fummit of com

i

mercial profperity, fhall we not endanger our Conftitution by rafhly drying up the fources which fwelled the tide, and gave rapidity to the current of our commercial importance and national revenue.

I need not enter into a minute defcription of the origin of the African Trade, or the origin of the National Debt. If either were to commence de novo, there would not be found in this House, or in this country, a more strenuous opposer of fuch speculations; but circumstanced as we now are, it is the intereft and duty of every good citizen, not to opprefs the main-fpring of Government, but to facilitate and regulate its movements with care and eircumspection.

If, Sir, we violate the fanction of Parliament, and touch the vitals of our Commerce, with a rough and injudicious hand, we endanger the existence of our present Constitution. By the moderation and prudent interference of this House, the African Trade, if mal-practices exift in it, may be meliorated; by timely information we may correct the abuses in Government, increase the general profperity of this country, and reftore and invigorate the powers of the Legislature. But, if with an imprudent temerity, we daringly strike at the root of our commerce, we undermine our prefent advantages, and deftroy our future expectations; and the Representatives of the people will be guilty of fuicide upon the laws, the profperity, and the constitution of England.

Mr. M. MONTAGU-I wish to bring to the recollection cf the Houfe, that on a former occafion, when my Honourable *Friend (Mr. Wilberforce) introduced a Motion for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, I abftained from troubling the House with any argument. For, however anxious I may be to teffify my opinion, and to prove that I have formed a judgment not more firm, than candid and deliberate, upon the fubject; yet knowing, that from the ardor with which I have` ́entered on the pursuit, and from the many hours I have been induced to fpend upon it, I may be fufpected of an intemperate zeal, and, of fomewhat of the feelings of a party, I have

been willing to yield my ftation in the contest to those who may be fuppofed to come with cooler imaginations; and have tied myself down, in the fituation of a spectator, to an attentive confideration of the arguments adduced on each side of the queftion. It is in this position, that, divesting myself as far as I can of all I have thought before upon the fubject, and giving a candid entertainment to the objections of the adversary, I have been more than ever confirmed in the foundness of my principles, and in the opinion of the policy, as well as justice, of the Abolition. It is now then no longer in my power, confiftent with the duties I owe to my country, to justice, and humanity, to refrain from uttering what I conceived to be my unalterable fentiments upon the fubject, and I entreat the House to believe, that it is in discharge of this duty I addrefs them, and not from any impertinent defire of obtruding myself on their natice.

But before enter on the argument, I wish to obviate a prejudice entertained against the friends of an Abolition of the Slave Trade, who are accused of proceeding in a rash, and precipitate manner to their conclufion, upon abstract and impracticable grounds; and of infifting on an abfurd extreme by Abolition, while they reject a wife, temperate, and practicable medium by Regulation. To do away this prejudice, I am defirous of offering fome preliminaries to the adver fary, which may serve as a just point of reference between

All I require on their parts is to concede, that in the Slave Trade there exists a great evil, which must of neceffity be remedied, and that the means of remedy ought to be fuch, as will be effectual to the object, and not an idle mockery and delufion. In return for this conceffion, I am ready to admit, that, inasmuch as it is the duty of legislators to remedy exifting evils, and those evils particularly of the moft extenfive and pernicious influence, it is no less their duty to apply that remedy in the leaft hazardous manner the nature of the evil will admit, and to feel themselves refponfible, that the hand of the phyfician fhould be the hand of a friend, and not the rash interference of an empiric. I hope the House will feel, that while I offer these principles as a standard by which to measure all I have to say on

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