thing but of the West Indies. I am not aware they have had any intelligence from Africa upon the subject. Would it not then be thought a shuffling trick of a counsel, if he were to take the testimony of those men because they are lords or great people, to the disparagement of the evidence of poorer persons, when the testimony of these last is directly to the point in question, and that of the great lords is on a subject altogether separate and distinct. Besides, all that these great men have said, is at best negative, and every thing which has been advanced by the others is positive, and remains uncontradicted. As to the mode of procuring slaves, even the honourable gentleman near me,* has not ventured to say that it has any thing like fairness in it. I think the least disreputable way of accounting for the supply of slaves, is to represent them as having been convicted of crimes, by legal authority. Now, sir, if the number of them proves, on inquiry, to be such that it is impossible to believe they have been all guilty even of any crime, much less of crimes deserving so great a punishment as perpetual slavery, this pretence sinks into nothing, and the very urging it, only disgraces those who can satisfy themselves with defending a practice so execrable, on grounds so futile, and by a supposition so absurd. What is the whole number of these convicts exported annually from Africa? EIGHTY THOUSAND. But I will grant that it is Britain alone that takes all her convicts, and that the slaves taken by other nations are not convicts, but are carried off by shameful fraud and violence. Britain alone, I will suppose, is so scrupulous, as to receive none that have not legally forfeited their liberty, leaving all the fraud of the slave trade to other countries. Britain, even on this supposition takes off no less than THIRTY or FORTY THOUSAND annually of African convicts! Now, sir, is it credible, is it possible for us to persuade ourselves, that even this number * Colonel Tarleton. can have been legally convicted of crimes, for which they have justly forfeited their liberty? The supposition is ridiculous. But allowing all these men to have been condemned by due legal process, and according to the strictest principles of justice; surely, sir, in this view, it is rather condescending in our country, and rather new also for us, to take on ourselves the task of transporting the convicts of other parts of the world, much more of those whom we call barbarous! Suppose, now, the court of France or Spain were to intimate a wish that we should perform this office for their cri. minals; I believe we should hardly find terms that could be strong enough to express our sense of the insult. But, for Africa-for its petty states-for its lowest and most miserable criminals, we accept the office with satisfaction and eagerness! Now, sir, a word or two as to the specifick crimes for which the Africans are sold as criminals. Witchcraft, in particular, is one. For this we entertain so sacred a horrour, that there being no objects to be found at home, we make, as if it were, a crusade to Africa, to show our indignation at the sin! As to adultery, the practice to be sure, does not stand exactly on the same ground. Adulterers are to be met with in this country, but then the crime is, I suppose, so common here, that we know not whom to single out for punishment from among the number. Determined, however, to show our indignation of the crime also, we send to Africa to punish it. We there prove our anger at it to be not a little severe; and, lest adulterers should any where in the world escape punishment, we degrade ourselves, even in Africa, to be their executioners. Thus, sir, we send to Africa to punish witchcraft, because there are no witches to be found here; and we send to the same country to punish adultery, because the adulterers here are too many to incur punishment. The house will remember too, that what I have here stated is, even by their own account, the very best state of the case which the advocates for the slave trade have pretended to set up. But let us now see how far facts will bear them out, even in these miserable pretexts. In one part of the evidence, we find a well known black trader brings a girl to a slave ship to be sold. The captain buys her. Some of her relations come on board afterwards, and ascertain by whom she was sold. They, in return, catch the vender, bring him to the same ship, and sell him for a slave. What says the black trader to the captain? "Do you buy me your grand trader?" "Yes says the captain, I will buy you or any one else." Now, sir, there is great reason for dwelling on this story. Certainly at the first view, it appears to be an instance of the most barefaced villany, and of nothing else. But if we examine well into the subject, we shall see that what happened in this case is, and ever must be, the common and ordinary conduct, that results from the very nature and circumstances of the trade itself. How could this captain decide? What means had he even of inquiring who was the real owner of this girl? Whether the grand trader or not; or who was the owner of the grand trader? The captain said when they sold the trader, the same thing which he said when the trader sold the girl; and the same thing too, which he always had said, and always must say, namely, "I cannot know who has a right to sell you; it is no affair of mine. If they'll sell you, I'll buy you. I cannot enter into these controversies. If any man offers me a slave, my rule is to buy him, and ask no questions." That the trade is, in fact, carried on in this manner, is indisputable; and that wars are made in Africa, solely for the purpose of supplying the European slave trade, is equally so. Is there any man that denies it? I do not believe a single gentleman in this committee will now dare to controvert so well established a fact; and it is for this reason, I shall not mispend your time in adducing additional proof of it, I will now enter into some particulars relative to what happened in the river Camaroon, already stated to you by an honourable gentleman.* This affair came out upon an action tried before the court of common pleas, on the first of March last, before Lord Loughborough. It was brought by one M'Dowal against Gregson and Co. for wages due to the plaintiff. The facts were directly in issue, so that by this strange concurrence of events, you have what you could hardly have expected, a judicial proof of the whole transaction. A chief tain, of the name of Quarmo, who meant to execute his revenge upon the slave captain for the the savage violence which the captain had before committed, goes to him, and says, "I want to go up the country to make trade, if you will help me by giving me some arms and gunpowder." The proposal is at once accepted. Now, sir, as the chief meant to deceive the captain, when he asked for these arms and gunpowder, we may be very sure he would use just that sort of art, which would be most likely to effect his purpose. He would not make a proposition of any extraordinary kind, which might alarm the captain's suspicions. He would, on the contrary, assign a motive the most usual, and common, and natural he could devise. Hence the plea of borrowing arms to make trade, and the success of the stratagem. It was so much the every day's practice, that the slave captain immediately consented, as it were through habit, to the request, which he tells you himself, he had often granted before; and, by the success of the fraud, his destruction was accomplished. In short, I again and again call on any man to show me how the African trade can be carried on but by such means, that if any one were to practise the same in this country, he would justly be punished with death. But, sir, we are accused of enthusiasm. Are we then fanaticks? Are we enthusiasts, because we cry do not rob; do not murder! I have ever considered * Mr. Wilberforce. this business as a most unjust and horrible persecution of our fellow creatures. But I am told I must be under some impression of enthusiasm. If, by that expression, be meant zeal and warmth, I not only freely acknowledge but glory in it. Enthusiasm, when it arises out of a just cause, is that which makes men act with energy. It is that without which nothing great was ever done since the creation of the world. Enthusiasm, properly directed, I hope therefore I shall always possess. This being as I have said, a cause of justice, it is one in which I cannot admit of any compromise; for there can be none between justice and injustice. There An honourable member has alleged, that it would have been fairer in the gentleman who moved the question, if he had expressed in the terms of it, the full extent of his own meaning. Though the words of the motion do not avow immediate abolition, the mover did, I think, most clearly and openly declare his intention was immediately to abolish. can be, therefore, no solid objection to it. He has drawn the motion, agreeably to the forms of the house, and with perfect good sense, in my opinion. He says, "when I bring in my bill, I mean to let it be open to amendment." It is, however, reasonable for us to expect, that the honourable gentleman will himself wish to have the blanks filled up in the manner that is most correspondent to the feelings of his own mind upon the subject. What then is the precise question now before the committee for their consideration? The question, sir, is only "whether this house is ready now to decide that the slave trade shall be abolished, leaving the time unsettled. When we come into the committee on the bill, any honourable gentleman may then move whatever period he may think fit. I say the trade ought to be abolished immediately. Others may think it ought to be posponed two, three, six, ten, or twenty years! I own that it appears to me they might as well propose a thousand. But, by this motion as it now stands, they will have an op |