the inhabitants of this devoted land, it was afforded by confidering who they were that were fo treated, and what was their fituation in their own country. So long had he been converfant with the whole of this great fubject, that on every part of it a crowd of ideas rufhed into his mind; but he would endeavour fo to coufine himself within particular points as to avoid trefpaffing too long upon the patience of the Committee. One witness spoke of the acutenefs of their capacities; another of the extent of their memory; a third of their genius for commerce; others of their good workmanship in gold, iron, and leather; the peculiarly excellent texture of their cloth, and the beautiful and indelible tincture of the dyes; and it was acknowledged by all, that they fupplied the thips with many articles of provifion, with wood and water, and other neceffaries; feveral mentioned, in high terms, their peaceable and gentle difpofitions; their chearfulnefs, and their hofpitality; even those who were nominally flaves, lived a comfortable, happy life, and were not liable to be punished but for crimes, nor to be fold without the form of a trial, nor in fome parts without the verdict of a jury. When one of the opponents' witneffes is afked concerning their condition and treatment, he fhews by his anfwer the impreffion made on his mind; he describes them as fitting and eating with their mafter in the true style of patriarchal fimplicity and comfort.Were these, then, a people incapable of complete civilization? It had been maintained, he knew, by fome, that they were an inferior fpecies; that they were even doomed by the Almighty to the fufferings they underwent, and that we were merely the inftruments of the divine vengeance. To those who urge this argument ferioufly, it were not difficult to make a reply; though he acknowledged that the compatibility of natural and moral evil with the exiftence of an allpowerful, all-wife, and all-merciful Governor of the world, was a mystery beyond the reach of the human intellect. But in the mouths of thofe, who, inftead of fubmitting with reluctance to the painful task of inflicting this punishment, courted and fued for the employment, and turned it to the purposes of their private intereft, it feemed to him to deferve a very different treatment, and to be, indeed, nothing less than a grofs and impious blafphemy.

Mr. Wilberforce added, that having made these remarks, he could scarcely entertain a doubt of there being but one wish generally prevalent in the Houfe, concerning the abolition of the flave-trade. He was aware, however, that an opinion had gone forth, that the measure would be attended with infallible ruin to the Weft-India Ilands. He truted he should prove that the direct contrary was the truth; but this, he muft say, was more than any one, on any principles, had a

3

right

right to require. For his own part, he confeffed, that, confidering the miferies this trade entailed on Africa, his liberty of choice was taken from him; he muft, at all events, determine for the abolition; but furely no man, however free he might deem himself to decide on grounds of expediency,would require more at his hands than that he fhould fhew the measure would not prove abfolutely ruinous to the WeftIndies. No petty, no dubious intereft would, by any one, be ftated as a fufficient plea to juftify the extenfive and certain evils he had enumerated. He would not detain the Committee for a moment, in arguing against the bringing of new lands into cultivation, by fresh importations of African flaves; for even apart from every confideration of justice and humanity, the impolicy of the measure was indifputably clear. Let the Committee confider the dreadful mortality that attended the opening of new lands; let them look to the evidence of Mr. Woolrich, and there fee a contrast drawn between the flow, perhaps, but fure, progrefs of cultivation, carried on in the natural way, and the attempt to force improvements, which, however flattering the profpe&t might appear at the outfet, foon produced a load of debt and inexuicable embarraffments. He might even appeal to the enormous fum, faid by the Weft Indians themselves to amount to more than 20,000,000l, owing to the people of this country; and challenge thein, on any principles, to contend that any new fyftem would involve them fo deep as that on which they had hitherto proceeded. But he would leave this head, referring the Committee to the evidence of Mr. Irving, a gentleman, to whofe abilities and merits the House and the country were no ftrangers; one of the few men Mr. Wilberforce had known, who united great and accurate knowledge of detail, with a deep and comprehenfive view of the general principles of the commercial fyftem. He called on the Houfe at large, and particularly on any gentlemen of the West Indies, who might be prefent, to liften to him calmly and difpaffionately, and he was perfuaded they would rejoice as much as he could do, if he were able to make out his point. The grand bafis on which were bottomed all the objections of thofe who maintained the contrary opinion, he apprehended to be this, that the flock of flaves now in the iflands, could not be kept up by propagation, but that it was neceffary, from time to time, to recruit them with imported Africans. In direct refutation of this pofition, he fhould prove; firft, that in the condition and treatment of the negroes, there were caufes fufficient to afford us reafon to expect a confiderable decreafe, particularly that their increase had not been a ferious object of attention; fecondly, that this decrease was, in fact, notwithstanding, very trifling, or rather, he

believed,

believed, he might declare it had now actually ceafed; and thirdly, he fhould urge many direct and collateral facts and arguments, conftituting, on the whole, an irrefiftible proof that even a rapid increafe might henceforth be expected.

It was much to be lamented, he faid, that on both fides, this great fubject had been treated in a manner by no means calculated to answer the purposes of a cool and deliberate enquiry; there had been too much warmth and acrimony. For his own part, he hoped he had always both thought and spoke with candour and moderation. In judging and fpeaking of the condition and treatment of flaves in the West Indies, he had never adopted those indifcriminate cenfures, into which fome had incautioufly fallen. It would be in the highest degree unjust to the gentlemen of the West Indies, not to obferve this diftin&tion, and a due regard to it would have tended to foften afperity, and even perhaps to have prevented much of the oppofition they have given. In ftating, as he was about to do, the leading circumstances of the condition of the negroes, it would, however, be neceffary to remark, that, whatever fplendid inftances there might be of good treatment, there were fome evils of almeft univer ́al operation, fuch he meant as were neceffarily connected with a. fyftem of flavery. Above all, the ftate of degradation to which the flaves were reduced, deferved to be noticed in this regard, and from which the worft confequences refulted in a thoufand ways, both to their own comfort, and even to their mafters' interests. Of this there could not be a more striking proof than the utter inattention to them as moral agents. It was not merely that they were worked under the whip like cattle; but no attempts were ever made to inftru&t them in the principles of religion and morality. This, together with the acknowledged neglect of any attempt to introduce. regular marriage among them, applied directly to the quellion concerning their increafe, and tended to refute the notion of its having been seriously attended to. The gentlemen who afferted this, and who faid they could point out nothing defective in the treatment of flaves, had frankly confeffed that their morals were utterly neglected, and that the belt confequences might be expected to refult from their being attended to; and how could it but be fo, when, as was declared by thefe very fame gentlemen, promifcuous intercourfe, early prostitution, and exceffive indulgence in fpirituous liquors, were material causes of their decrease? Indeed, the happy effects of inftructing the flaves in the principles of religion, had lately been experimentally proved, particularly in the Inland of Antigua, were, under the teaching of the Moravians and Methodists, they had fo far profited, that the planters them

i

felves confeffed their value, as property, was increased onethird by their increafed habits of regularity and industry.

Whatever might have been faid to the contrary, it was plainly to be inferred, from the evidence, that the flaves had not been under the protection of law. Colonial ftatutes had, indeed, in fome cafes, been paffed, which might feem to afford them a fort of qualified protection; but, however ill treated by their mafters, they had not been confidered as having a right to any redrefs. A curious inftance in point occurred to his recollection: it was contained in the evidence of Mr. Rofs, a gentleman, for whom he must be allowed to exprefs fentiments of unfeigned refpect and regard. There was fomething in the manner of his coming forward, to give his teftimony, that reflected the highest honour on his character. Some of his nearest and most intimate connections were in the West Indian line; but when he (Mr. Wilberforce) without any previous acquaintance or introduction, called him forth to tell what he knew, he did not difregard the appeal, but slept forward from a principle of duty which fuperfeded all perfonal confiderations. Mr. Rofs mentions an inftance of aftonishing cruelty, committed by a Jew. It was but justice to add, that the man was confidered with deteftation whenever the circumftance was told; but, though a matter of notoriety, it does not feem to have entered into the contemplation of any perfon, to call him to a legal account; and Mr. Rofs exprefsly declared, that he conceived a mafter had a right to punish his flave in whatever manner he might think proper. The fame was declared by numberlefs other witnesses. There would be no end of going into particulars. An affertion, however, was to be found to the contrary, and fome records of convictions had been sent over as proofs of it. Mr. Wilberforce went into the particulars of thefe records, for the purpose of refuting the conclufion they were meant to eftablifh; particula ly remarking, that the convictions were all of a very late date, and that in one of them, where 1 mafter had cruelly cut the mouth of a child, of fix years old, almost from ear to ear, fo ftrange and fo novel a doctrine did it appear to the jury, that a master was liable to punishment for any act of cruelty exercifed on a flave, that they brought in a conditional verdict, "guilty, fubject to the opinion of "the court, if immoderate correction of a flave, by his mafter, be a crime indictable." The court determined in the affirmative; and what was the punishment of this abominable act of barbarity? a fine of 40 fhillings currency, equivalent to about 25 fhillings of our money! the flaves were but ill off in point of medical care; though that was an article wherein it might be expected there would be the leaft defect, when they were the property of affluent planters, because it was

that

that in which a prudent regard to intereft, was the leaft likely to be counteracted by any fudden effects of paffion. Some times 4 or 5, or even 8 or gooo flaves, were under the care of one medical man; which, difperfed on different and diftant eflates, were a greater number than he could properly attend

to.

There was reafon to believe the flaves in general were underfed: he might refer to the pofitive declarations to that effect contained in the evidence, and would confirm them by two or three additional arguments. The flaves, in general, were Supported partly by the produce of their own provifiongrend, partly by an allowance from their mafter of flour or grain. In thofe iflands wherein the produce of the former were very trifling, owing to long and frequent droughts, their allowed food, inftead of being proportionably greater, was actually lefs, than in other iflands, where this produce was the meft confiderable. In one of the islands, where, we are told, provifion ground does not answer one year in three, it was from 5 to 9 pints per week: in Dominica, where thefe never failed, from 6 to 7 quarts; and yet, even in the latter, it was univerfally remarked, that the flaves were in far better health and spirits, during the five or fix months of the crop or harvest season, notwithstanding the much harder labour of that period, owing to their being then fomewhat better fed. It appeared, in the evidence of a refpectable witnefs on the fide of our opponents, that the utmoft weekly allowance, generally given to a working negro in Nevis and St. Chriftopher's, where there was no provifion-ground, was but 11 pints; yet, in the act of Affembly, lately paffed in Jamaica, it is prefcribed, that 21 pints fhall be allowed weekly to every flave confined in prifon. In Nevis alfo, fo long ago as the year 1717, the rate of food was fixed at a pound of meat or fish, and a pound of bread, daily. A prifon allowance is not in general meant to be fuch as will pamper the body; yet how much does it here exceed that of the working field flaves in the old Leeward iflands?

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It was easy to see how, in the feveral particulars he had been mentioning, the flaves would feel the bad effects of their mafters' being embarraffed in their circumftances; whence would naturally refult an abridgement of their food, with an increase of their labour: but this led him to the mention of a capital caufe of the negroes' fufferings, and consequent decreafe. This was the non refidence of the planters, many them perfons of affluent fortunes, of found understandings, and liberal hearts; who, if they were on the fpot, would attend to these poor creatures, and feel themselves bound, both by duty and inclination, to promote their happiness. But it was to no purpose to send out orders, of the execution VOL. XXIX.

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