ings within the last few weeks, he was led to believe that his opponents were much more sanguine even than, he suspected, and that they were resolved to persevere. Upon the whole, however, the right hon. gentleman could not persuade himself to suppose that that house would call on any gentleman to enter upon such an important investigation stripped of the aid of his counsel; and he could not help observing, that the attempt to take advantage of him in this instance, was not a very liberal return for the manner in which he gave way to the noble lord's motion upon a former occasion. But his manner of acting towards the noble lord and his friends in this transaction was that which, perhaps, few men would be ready to imitate.

Ayes 162; noes 12.

MARCH 17.

ABOLITION OF SLAVERY.

Lord Percy moved for leave to bring in a bill for the gradual abolition of slavery in the West Indies.

MR. SHERIDAN having anxiously expected that the bill passed the preceding night was the preamble of the ultimate measure of emancipation, thought he should be guilty of the grossest inconsistency in giving a silent vote on the present question. With these sentiments he need scarcely say, that the noble earl had his thanks for having directed the attention of the house to this important subject, even at that early period. The noble earl's statement had been misrepresented. He had never proposed to enfranchise the living negroes; his measure, as he understood him, was to commence with infants born after a period, which would remain a matter of future parliamentary discussion. The planters were entitled to fair dealing on this subject. If the house meant to say, that by abolishing the slave trade they had done all that duty demanded, and that they would leave the emancipation of the slaves to the hazard of fortuitous circumstances, let them be explicit, and say so; but if there lurked in any man's mind a secret desire to proceed in that business, a secret conviction that more ought to be done than had been done, it was unmanly, it was dishonourable, not to speak out. For one, he would boldly declare that he had farther views; he hoped that the young nobleman who had done his feelings so much credit, by the proposition which he had that evening made, would

stand to his ground. If he persevered in the pursuit of his object with the same zeal as his right hon. friend opposite had done, he had no doubt that he would meet with the same success. An hon. baronet had talked of a cloven foot; he pleaded guilty to the cloven foot, but, of the man who expressed pleasure at the hope of seeing so large a portion of the human race freed from the shackles of tyranny, it should rather be said, that he displayed the pennon of an angel than the cloven foot of a demon. It was true noi mmediate connection existed between the abolition of the slave trade, and the abolition of slavery, but the same feelings must be roused by the consideration of both questions; and he who detested the one practice must also detest the other. He did not like to hear the term "property" applied to the subjects of a free country. Could man become the property of man? A colony emanating from the free constitution of England must carry with it the principles of that constitution, and could no more shake off its well known allegiance to the constitution than its allegiance to the sovereign. He trusted that the planters might be induced to lead the way on the subject of emancipation; but he cautioned the house against being sanguine on this subject. Were the planters themselves always resident on the islands, he should have greater hopes; but it was not probable that because cargoes of human misery were no longer to be landed on their shores, that because their eyes were to be no longer glutted with the sight of human suffering, or their ears pierced with the cries of human distraction, in any further importation of negroes, that the slave-drivers would soon forget their fixed habits of brutality, and learn to treat the unhappy wretches in their charge with clemency and compassion. Slavery would not wear itself out; it would become more rigid unless the legislature became more vigilant, and reminded the planters of the new duty that had fallen upon them, of rearing the young slaves in such a manner, that they might be worthy of freedom. Adverting to the quotation from Gibbon, he contended, that the slavery of the West Indies was unlike any other slavery; it was peculiarly unlike the slavery of ancient days, when the slaves frequently attained to the highest dignities; Esop, Terence, and Seneca, were slaves. Was there a possibility that any of the unfortunate negroes in the West Indies should emulate such men? It might be dangerous to give freedom to the slaves in a mass,

but that it was not dangerous to give it to them in detail, was sufficiently proved by a little pamphlet that had been put into his hands the preceding night, in which it was stated, that a Mr. David Barclay, to his eternal honour be it spoken, who had himself been a slave-owner in Jamaica, and who, regretting that he had been so, on a bequest of slaves being made to him, emancipated them, caused them to be conveyed to Pennsylvania, where they were properly instructed, and where their subsequent exemplary conduct was the general theme of admiration. With this fact before him, should he be told that he must give up all hope of abolishing slavery! No, he would never give it up. He would exclaim with the poet, in the words of the motto of the pamphlet which he had mentioned,

"I would not have a slave to till my ground,

To fan me when I sleep, and tremble when

I wake, for all that human sinews, bought
And sold, have ever earn'd."

Sir C. Pole moved that the house be counted, and only 35 members being present, it was adjourned.

MARCH 18.

WESTMINSTER ELECTION.

Lord H. Petty moved that the Westminster Petition be now taken into consideration.

MR. SHERIDAN rose and said, that he was aware that, standing in the situation he did, he was entitled to comment, to remark on, and to sum up all the evidence that had been adduced in support of the allegations contained in the petition now before the house; he should, however, waive that right; the evidence was in the hands of every member of that house, and he was not anxious, if he could do so, to add to the impression testimony of such a nature must have already produced; he would content himself with one remark, which was, that that evidence, weak and futile as it was, did not say more to its own confusion than would have been proved by witnesses unimpeachable, which he (Mr. Sheridan), had the house thought it necessary, was ready to bring forward. As an instance, he should mention merely Mr. Weatherhead himself. When an inquiry was made as to his services in the navy, he confessed himself not quite satisfied. with the return of the navy A noble lord (Folkestone)

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was equally dissatisfied, but upon different grounds. The noble lord seemed to think that this Mr. Weatherhead had been calumniated, and accordingly the noble lord moved for a return at once more exact and comprehensive. What had been the issue of this attempt to rescue the character of this Mr. Weatherhead from this supposed slander? Why, in truth, no more than this: that he, Mr. Weatherhead, had not served in one ship only, but in twelve or thirteen, that he had continued in one a year, in another ship three months, in a third a month, in a fourth three weeks, and in a fifth five days; running, as it were, the gauntlet of the British navy; for it appeared that he had been actually guilty of desertion from each ship, though in the first return it appeared that he had deserted but once. But it was not more difficult to fix the station of this naval officer to a certain ship, than to fix his birth to a certain place; he had the singular good fortune to be born at a number of different places—(a laugh); he was first at Newcastle, he was born at Morpeth, and after some other birth he was brought forth in London-(a loud laugh). But there was another slight ground of objection to the character of this witness; in the month of September, 1803, he petitioned to be examined for a lieutenantcy, and to the recommendatory certificate of the different captains under whom he served, there was but one objection, namely, that they were all discovered to be forgeries. He was not anxious to press upon the house the gross and flagrant contradictions and absurdities in the evidence they had heard; he did not wish to expose the miserable wretches to the just rigour of the honest indignation they had so universally excited; but he would put it to the feelings of that house, whether it was not necessary to inquire how far those wretches had been the tools of a conspiracy; how far it was the duty of any agent or agents to inquire into the nature of the testimony and the character of the witnesses, more especially in a case where this evidence went directly to affect the seat of a member of parliament, to mention nothing of the danger of propagating groundless slander against a privy councillor. It was for the house to consider how far the agents are responsible for employing wretches as substantial evidence, whose character they might have learned (had they been ignorant of it) in the neighbourhood of Bowstreet, Hatton-garden, and Newgate; but he should abstain, he would keep his word with the house and not enter into any

remark upon the evidence. He had an idea of submitting some motion for the purpose of investigating the charge of conspiracy; he should, however, in compliance with the suggestions of those right hon. friends whose superior judgment was with him decisive, give way, and should now, through a sense of delicacy, retire, leaving his cause with confidence to the house, assured as he was, that the house would, with becoming dignity, assert its own character and honour, and, in doing so, preserve his.

Mr. Sheridan immediately withdrew.

AUGUST 7.

THIRD READING OF IRISH ARMS BILL.

MR. SHERIDAN declared it was a matter of astonishment to hear the question called for by something like a general voice. He had noticed the motion of his hon. friend, and the ability with which he had supported it, and he had noticed most attentively the eloquent and unanswerable arguments of his hon. and learned friend (Sir A Pigot), and many other hon. gentlemen; he certainly did think that something would have been said in answer to them; he certainly did think that something like an answer would have been attempted; he certainly did think that gentlemen on the other side would have condescended to have said something in favour of their own measure, after it had been almost overwhelmed with such a torrent of argument. But if ever Ireland was at once injured and insulted, it was that night; he conceived the silence of ministers on this occasion to be an injustice to the measure itself, whilst it evinced a total disregard of the gentlemen who spoke upon the subject, and through them insulted and outraged the feelings of the people of Ireland. The gentlemen who spoke upon the subject, pleaded the cause of the injured constitution of Ireland. They pleaded that cause in the most moderate and persuasive terms, and yet the most sullen silence prevailed throughout the whole body of his Majesty's ministers; they gave a blank instead of argument. Even on the introduction of the bill, when it was unavoidable to say something in support of the measure, the attorney-general did not pretend to say that he knew any thing of the existence of any facts, the existence of which was necessary to justify the adoption of such a measure; no, but he had heard something by rumour somewhere, about the existence of some