the same circumstances as Mr. Stanley, but very undecided on the subject. He was, however, so strongly convinced by the arguments he had heard, that he was become equally earnest for the abolition.

Mr. Smith (member for Pontefract) said that he should not trouble the house at so late an hour further than to enter his protest, in the most solemn manner, against this trade, which he considered as most disgraceful to the country, and contrary to all the principles of justice and religion.

Mr. Burke said he would use but few words. He declared that he had for long time had his mind drawn toward this great subject. He had even prepared a bill for the regulation of the trade, conceiving at that time that the immediate abolition of it was a thing hardly to be hoped for; but when he found that Mr. Wilberforce had seriously undertaken the work, and that his motion was for the abolition, which he approved much more than his own, he had burnt his papers, and made an offering of them in honor of his nobler proposition, much in the same manner as we read that the curious books were offered up and burnt at the approach of the Gospel. He highly applauded the confessions of Mr. Stanley and Mr. Ryder. It would be a glorious tale for them to tell their constituents, that it was impossible for them, however prejudiced, if sent to hear discussion in that house, to avoid surrendering up their hearts and judgments at the shrine of reason.

Mr. Wilberforce made a short reply to some arguments in the course of the debate; after which, at half-past three in the morning, the house divided. There appeared for Mr. Wilberforce's motion eighty-eight, and against it one hundred and sixty-three; so that it was lost by a majority of seventy-five votes.

Upon the news of this defeat the friends of the cause held a meeting. They passed a vote of thanks to the illustrious minority which had stood forth in the house of commons as the assertors of British justice and humanity; and they resolved not to desist from appealing to their countrymen until the commercial intercourse with Africa should cease to be polluted with the blood of its inhabitants. Mr. Clarkson made an abridgment of the evidence before the house of commons, which was circulated through the kingdom. Great numbers of people left off the use of articles produced by slave labor, and vented their feelings in public meetings to address parliament on the subject; and this they did with so much earnestness and activity, that by the latter end of March, in 1792, no less than 517 petitions were laid on the table of the commons, praying for the total abolition of the slave-trade. Emboldened and supported by the people, Mr. Wilberforce again introduced the question on the 2d of April, 1792, and after a speech of four hours, moved "that it is the opinion of this house that the African slave-trade ought to be abolished." This led to a long and interesting debate. Never in the house of commons was so much splendid oratory displayed as on that night. We extract from the parliamentary records a report of some of the speeches made on that occasion.

Mr. Wilberforce opened the debate in a luminous and impressive speech. After remarking at considerable length upon the evils and the injuries of the

slave-trade, he touched upon the argument so often repeated, that other nations would carry on the slave-trade if we abandoned it. But how did we know this? Had not Denmark given a noble example to the contrary? She had consented to abolish the trade in ten years; and had she not done this, even though we, after an investigation of nearly five years, had ourselves hung back? But what might not be expected if we were to take up the cause in earnest; if we were to proclaim to all nations the injustice of the trade, and to solicit their concurrence in the abolition of it! He hoped the representatives of the nation would not be less just than the people. The latter had stepped forward and expressed their sense more generally by petitions than in any instance in which they had ever before interfered. To see this great cause thus triumphing over distinctions and prejudices was a noble spectacle. Whatever might be said of our political divisions, such a sight had taught us that there were subjects still beyond the reach of party; that there was a point of elevation where we ascended above the jarring of the discordant elements which ruffled and agitated the vale below. In our ordinary atmosphere, clouds and vapors obscured the air, and we were the sport of a thousand conflicting winds and adverse currents; but here we moved in a higher region, where all was pure and clear, and free from perturbation and discomposure.

"As some tall cliff, that lifts its awful form,

Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm:
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,

Eternal sunshine settles on its head."

Here, then, on this august eminence, he hoped we should build the temple. of benevolence; but we should lay its foundation deep in truth and justice; and that we should inscribe upon its gates, "Peace and good will to men." Here we should offer the first fruits of our benevolence, and endeavor to compensate, if possible, for the injuries we had brought upon our fellow-men.

He would only observe that his conviction of the indispensable necessity of immediately abolishing this trade remained as strong as ever. Let those who talk of allowing three or four years to the continuance of it, reflect on the disgraceful scenes which had passed last year As for himself, he would wash his hands of the blood which would be spilled in this horrid interval. He could not, however, but believe that the hour was come when we should put a final period to the existence of this cruel traffic. Should he unhappily be mistaken, he would never desert the cause; but to the last moment of his life he would exert his utmost powers in its support. He would now move, "That it is the opinion of this committee that the trade carried on by British subjects, for the purpose of obtaining slaves on the coast of Africa, ought to be abolished."

Mr. Bailie was in hopes that the friends of the abolition would have been contented with the innocent blood which had been already shed. The great island of St. Domingo had been torn to pieces by insurrections. The most dreadful barbarities had been perpetrated there. In the year 1789, the imports into it exceeded five millions sterling. The exports from it in the same year amounted to six millions; and the trade employed three hundred thou

sand tons of shipping, and thirty thousand seamen. This fine island, thus advantageously situated, had been lost in consequence of the agitation of the question of the slave-trade. Surely, so much mischief ought to have satisfied those who supported it; but they required the total destruction of all the West Indian colonies belonging to Great Britain to complete the ruin.

The honorable gentleman who had just spoken, had dwelt upon the enormities of the slave-trade. He was far from denying that many acts of inhumanity might accompany it; but as human nature was much the same every where, it would be unreasonable to expect, among African traders, or the inhabitants of our islands, a degree of perfection in morals which was not to be found in Great Britain itself. Would any man estimate the character of the English nation by what was to be read in the records of the Old Bailey? He himself, however, had lived sixteen years in the West Indies, and he could bear testimony to the general good usage of the slaves.

Before the agitation of this impolitic question, the slaves were contented with their situation. There was a mutual confidence between them and their masters and this continued to be the case till the new doctrines were broached. But now depots of arms were necessary on every estate, and the scene was totally reversed. Nor was their religious then inferior to their civil state. When the English took possession of Grenada, where his property lay, they found them baptized and instructed in the principles of the Roman Catholic faith. The priests of that persuasion had indeed been indefatigable in their vocation; so that imported Africans generally obtained within twelve months. a tolerable idea of their religious duties. He had seen the slaves there go through the public mass in a manner, and with a fervency, which would have done credit to more civilized societies. But the case was now altered; for, except where the Moravians had been, there was no trace in our islands of an attention to their religious interests.

It had been said that their punishments were severe. There might be instances of cruelty, but these were not general. Many of them were undoubtedly ill disposed; though not more, according to their number on a plantation, than in a regiment, or in a ship's crew. Had we never heard of seamen being flogged from ship to ship, or of soldiers dying in the very act of punishment? Had we not also heard, even in this country of boasted liberty, of seamen being seized, and carried away, when returning from distant voyages, after an absence of many years; and this without even being allowed to see their wives and families? As to distressed objects, he maintained that there was more wretchedness and poverty in St. Giles than in all the West Indian islands belonging to Great Britain.

He would now speak of the African and West Indian trades. The imports and exports of these amounted to upwards of ten millions annually; and they gave employment to three hundred thousand tons of shipping, and to about twenty-five thousand seamen. These trades had been sanctioned by our ancestors in parliament. The acts for this purpose might be classed under three heads. First, they were such as declared the colonies and the trade thereof

advantageous to Great Britain, and therefore entitled to her protection. Sec ondly, such as authorized, protected and encouraged the trade of Africa, as advantageous in itself, and necessary to the welfare and existence of the sugar colonies; and, thirdly, such as promoted and secured loans of money to the proprietors of the said colonies, either from British subjects or from foreigners. These acts, he apprehended, ought to satisfy every person of the legality and usefulness of these trades. They were enacted in reigns distinguished for the production of great and enlightened characters. We heard then of no wild and destructive doctrines like the present. These were reserved for this age of novelty and innovation. But he must remind the house that the inhabitants of our islands had as good a right to the protection of their property as the inhabitants of Great Britain. Nor could it be diminished in any shape without full compensation. The proprietors of lands in the ceded islands, which were purchased of government under specific conditions of settlement, ought to be indemnified. They, also, (of whom he was one,) who had purchased the territory granted by the crown to General Monkton in the island of St. Vincent, ought to be indemnified also. The sale of this had gone on briskly, till it was known that a plan was in agitation for the abolition of the slave-trade. Since that period the original purchasers had done little or nothing, and they had many hundred acres on hand which would be of no value if the present question was carried. In fact, they had a right to compensation. The planters generally spent their estates in this country. They generally educated their children in it. They had never been found seditious or rebellious; and they demanded of the parliament of Great Britain that protection which, upon the principles of good faith, it was in duty bound to afford them in common with the rest of his majesty's loyal subjects.

Mr. Henry Thornton remarked, that the manner of procuring slaves in Africa was the great evil to be remedied. Africa was to be stripped of its inhabitants to supply a population for the West Indies. There was a Dutch proverb which said, "My son, get money, honestly if you can; but get money;" or, in other words, "Get slaves, honestly if you can; but get slaves." This was the real grievance; and the two honorable gentlemen, by confining their observations to the West Indies, had entirely overlooked it.

Though this evil had been fully proved, he could not avoid stating to the house some new facts, which had come to his knowledge as a director of the Sierra Leone company, and which would still further establish it. The consideration that they had taken place since the discussion of the last year on this subject, obliged him to relate them.

Mr. Falconbridge, agent to the company, sitting one evening in Sierra Leone, heard a shout, and immediately afterwards the report of a gun. Fearing an attack, he armed forty of the settlers, and rushed with them to the place from whence the noise came. He found a poor wretch, who had been crossing from a neighboring village, in the possession of a party of kidnappers, who were tying his hands. Mr. Falconbridge, however, dared not rescue him, lest, in the defenseless state of his own town, retaliation might be made upon him.

At another time a young woman, living half a mile off, was sold, without any criminal charge, to one of the slave-ships. She was well acquainted with the agent's wife, and had been with her only the day before. Her cries were heard, but it was impossible to relieve her.

At another time a young lad, one of the free settlers who went from England, was caught by a neighboring chief, as he was straggling alone from home, and sold for a slave. The pretext was, that some one in the town of Sierra Leone had committed an offense. Hence, the first person belonging to it, who could be seized, was to be punished. Happily, the free settlers saw him in his chains, and they recovered him before he was conveyed to the ship.

To mark still more forcibly the scenes of misery to which the slave-trade gave birth, he would mention a case stated to him in a letter by king Naimbanna. It had happened to this respectable person, in no less than three instances, to have some branches of his family kidnapped, and carried off to the West Indies. At one time three young men, Corpro, Banna, and Marbrour, were decoyed on board a Danish slave-ship, under pretense of buying something, and were taken away. At another time another relation piloted a vessel down the river He begged to be put on shore, when he came opposite to his own town, but he was pressed to pilot her to the river's mouth. The captain then pleaded the impracticability of putting him on shore, carried him to Jamaica, and sold him for a slave. Fortunately, however, by means of a letter which was conveyed there, the man, by the assistance of the governor, was sent back to Sierra Leone. At another time another relation was also kidnapped. But he had not the good fortune, like the former, to return.

He would mention one other instance. A son had sold his own father, for whom he obtained a considerable price; for, as the father was rich in domestic slaves, it was not doubted that he would offer largely for his ransom. The old man accordingly gave twenty-two of these in exchange for himself. The rest, however, being from that time filled with apprehensions of being, on some ground or other, sold to the slave-ships, fled to the mountains of Sierra Leone, where they now dragged on a miserable existence. The son himself was sold, in his turn, soon after. In short, the whole of that unhappy peninsula, as he learned from eye witnesses, had been desolated by the trade in slaves. Towns were seen standing without inhabitants all over the coast; in several of which the agent of the company had been. There was nothing but distrust among the inhabitants. Every one, if he stirred from home, felt himself obliged to be armed.

Such was the nature of the slave-trade. It had unfortunately obtained the name of a trade, and many had been deceived by the appellation. But it was war and not trade. It was a mass of crimes, and not commerce. It was that which prevented the introduction of a trade in Africa; for it was only by clearing and cultivating the lands, that the climate could be made healthy for settlements; but this wicked traffic, by dispersing the inhabitants, and causing the lands to remain uncultivated, made the coast unhealthy to Europeans. He had found, in attempting to establish a colony there, that it was an obstacle