in fupport of the pofition which he had laid down. Next, he gave the opinion of that gallant officer, Lord Rodney, refpecting the great advantage which accrued to the navy, upon the breaking out of a war, by having fo numerous a body of mariners, inured to the climate, when we wish to fend a fleet to the Weft Indies; a circumftance worthy of attention. And from Liverpool alone, he faid, the navy might be fupplied with 993 feamen annually, from the beft calculation that could be made; an object which certainly ought not to escape the notice of a wife Government.

Colonel Tarleton next remarked, that having received the indulgence of the Houfe, during various ftatements, which, perhaps, had nothing of novelty in them, but which were indifpenfably neceffary, and which he had endeavoured to render as concife as poffible, he would not much longer trefpafs on its patience. It could not, however, he trufted, be deemed fuperfluous, if he mentioned fome circumftances to the Houfe which he might have omitted, or which he had not fufficiently enforced to attract its attention. He could with gentlemen to advert to the property and connections dependent on the African trade; as much dependent on the African trade, to ufe the language of a nervous and elegant writer, as a "bird is on its wing for food, and when wound"ed there, it starves!" He could wish to imprefs gentlemen ftrongly with the recollection of the fanction which the African trade had obtained from Parliament. He could wish to remind them of the length of time the question of abolition had been pending in that Houfe. He could wish to give as much affiftance as lay in his power, which he acknowledged to be extremely feeble, to accelerate that adjudication which had been fo often, and fo earneftly, entreated by the numerous merchants and manufacturers of this country, whofe interest had been materially injured by procrastination: and ha trufted that he could not make a futile appeal to that House, when he called upon its juftice to extend an immediate vote of protection to the Weft-India planters, whofe lives had been, and were, expofed to imminent and hourly danger, and whofe property had undergone a fevere and unmerited depreciation, notwithstanding the exifting laws of this country, for the inquifitorial powers vefted by the conftitution in this Houfe. To what could gentlemen afcribe that depreciation? To what could they impute the late infurrection at Dominica? which ifland the Governor lately pledged himself to held in fubjection, without the affiftance of the military, but which was lately faved, from horrid carnage and midnight butchery, by the adventitious prefence of two British regiments? To what, he repeated, could gentlemen impute this infurretion, but to the queftion of abolition? And, after at

tedious

tedious investigation on that question for near our years, he could not difcover the flighteft reafon to juftify delay, except gentlemen could not prevail upon themfelves to decide, before an infurrection had abfolutely taken place at Jamaica, when the forrow, he had almoft faid the penitence, of the mover and abettors of the abolition, and the interference of that Houfe, would be equally unavailing.

To gentlemen of great landed property, it was unneceffary for him to point out the tendency and probable effect of the propofed abolition. If he poffeffed all the eloquence and ingenuity in that Houfe, with thofe powerful auxiliaries, he fhould not be able to convince them, that the abolition would leffen the national debt, increase the commerce of the country, or take one fraction from the oppreffive taxes they now endured: but he believed they would give him credit, inexperienced as he was in that Houfe, when he plainly advanced, that it would have a direct contrary effect; when he afferted, that the authors and abettors of the abolition endanger their honour, their property, and their happiness; and when he inferred, that the Minifter, not being taken by furprise, must be supposed to have fome capital refource in ftore, either from fome novel calculation that the land tax would hear an additional burden, or from fome inexhauftible fource of unclaimed property, which had hitherto escaped the vigilance of his predeceffors in office, and would compenfate to the Public for fuch a diminution of the trade, and confequent defalcation of the revenue of the country.

To the mercantile part of the Houfe he muft likewife ufe language, which, he was forry to fay, feemed confonant to the feelings of the authors and abettors of the abolition."Gentlemen, your fuccefs in trade has of late years been fo "prodigious, that it feems neceffary to fufpend your acti"vity, by cutting off one of the principal branches of your "commerce, for the fake of humanity and the honour of the "nation. You are to have no farther refpect for, or future "confidence in, acts of Parliament. The fanction of the "Legiflature is nothing. A few of the Minifterial fide of "this Houfe have been gifted with religious infpiration, and "the revelation has been extended to certain eminent per

fonages on this fide of the Houfe; and thefe enlightened "philanthropifts have difcovered, that it feems neceffary, "for the fake of humanity, and the honour of the nation, "that all British merchants concerned in the African trade, "fhould have their defigns harraffed, their property injured, "and their reputation traduced; notwithstanding fuch per"fecution muft undoubtedly fofter, encourage, and ag"grandize the furrounding nations of Europe, who rival "Great Britain in her commerce and in her navigation."

As the fuperftition and bigotry, in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, which, during thofe dark, ignorant, and barbarous ages, threw down every barrier erected by reafon and by juftice, in the name of Heaven, let not a miftaken humanity, in thefe enlightened times, furnish a colourable pretext for any injurious attack on property or repu

tation.

But if all the authorities which he had adduced were doubtful; if his premifes were fallacious; if fome of the circumftances of crueltry were proved, which the abolitionists have only afferted, and which, fortunately for this country, and happily for human nature, were unfounded, he thought himfelf guilty of a rash and impolitic measure in voting for the abolition, if he took only a curfory glance at the finances of England, and her relative fituation with Europe. He could not bring himself to think this a convenient time, the country in an eligible fituation, or the Minifter ferious in his inclination to make an experiment which prefents a certain profpect of lofs, and no probability of advantage. An abolition would inftantly annihilate a trade, which annually employs upwards of 5,500 failors, upwards of 160 fhips, and whofe exports amount to 800,000l. fterling. And the fame experiment would undoubtedly bring the Weft India trade to decay, whofe exports and imports amount to upwards of 6,000,000l. fterling, and which gives employment to upwards of 160,000 tons of additional thipping, and failors in proportion; all objects of too great magniqude to be hazaided on an unneceffary fpeculation, which, in all human probability, would prove ruinous to the commercial confequence, to the national honour, and the political glory of Great Bri

tain.

Mr. Mr. Grofvenor, having prefaced his fpeech with many comGrosvenor pliments to the humanity and good intentions of the honour

able mover, faid, that he had read only the Report of the Privy Council, for he wanted no other evidence, and it appeared to him, from the delay of two years, that the honourable gentleman himself must have great doubts of the propriety of his motion; for, if it was fo clear a point as it was declared to be be, it could not have needed either fo much evidence or fo much time. Mr. Grofvenor remarked, that he had heard a great deal of kidnapping flaves, and of other barbarous practices. He was forry for it; but it fhould be ecollected, that these things were the confequence of the natural law of Africa, and that inftead of declaiming against it, we should endeavour, like wife men, to turn it to our own advantage. Gentlemen had difplayed a great deal of eloquence in exhibiting, in horrid colours, the traffic in daves. He acknowledged it was an unamiable trade, fo alfo

were

were many others; the trade of a butcher was an unamiable trade, but it was very neceffary, notwithstanding. He could not help thinking there was great reafon to doubt the propriety of the motion; and the more he confidered the fubject, the more was he perfuaded that it was an improvident and unwife measure. Mr. Grosvenor added, that he would endeavour to explain the nature of his objections to the motion, by introducing a ftory. When the Duke of Marlborough was abroad, the Commander of a garrifon, which he vifited, made an apology for not faluting his Grace, according to the custom, affuring him he had one hundred reafons to affign for not doing it. The firft of which was, that he had no cannon; upon which the Duke immediately answered, that he would excufe him the other ninety and nine. In the fame manner, obferved Mr. Grofvenor, "I have twenty "reafons for difapproving the abolition of the flave trade; "the firft of which is, that the thing is impoffible; and "therefore I need not give the other nineteen." Parliament could not abolish the trade; they might relinquish it; but to whom? To France, Spain, and Holland, and other countries, who would take it up, and fhare it among them; fo that the trade would be ftill continued, and without the humane regulations applied to it by the English.

In conclufion, Mr. Grofvenor quoted a faying of the late Alderman Beckford, on the origin of the American war, when he cautioned the House against it: "Meddle not with "troubled waters," faid the Alderman, "they will be found "to be bitter waters, and the waters of affiction." Mr. Grofvenor repeated, that he must acknowledge that the flave trade was an unamiable trade; but he would not gratify his humanity at the expence of the interefts of his country, and he thought we should not too curiously enquire into the unpleafant circumftances with which perhaps it was attended.

Mr. James Martin obferved, that whoever had lived to Mr. any advanced age, muft be well aware to what a confiderable Martin. degree a mistaken felf-intereft could darken the understanding, and pervert the judgement, even of the best-meaning perfons. He had often, with much concern, obferved, how very perniciously this bias operated to the detriment of fociety, and to the difgrace of mankind; but he was not apprized of the full power of this delufion of the mind, till the bufinefs now before the Committee began to be the fubject of public difcuffion. He had always conceived, that the cuftom of trafficking in human creatures had been incautiously begun, without its dreadful and neceffary confequences being forefeen; for he never could perfuade himself that any man, under the influence of moral principles, could fuffer himself, knowingly, to be carrying on a trade replete with fraud, VOL. XXIX. cruelty,

Gg

cruelty, and deftruction. He faid, deftruction, for fo he thought; and he thought, also, that the deftruction introduced and occafioned by this moft fhocking trade, was of the blackest and most inhuman fpecies; inafmuch as it was a lingering death, which, inftead of putting an end to the mifery of the fufferers by a speedy stroke, not only afflicted and tortured the body, but, by depriving the wretch of all the dearest comforts of life, haraffed the mind, till nature, finking under grief and defpair, kindly granted that relief which the tyrant mafter, for the fake of his own private, but much mistaken, felf intereft, would deny. But, he observed, it was clear to every perfon of accurate obfervation, that those who blindly and immediately liftened to the fuggeftions of a narrow felf-intereft, did really thwart and counteract that intereft to which they were ready to facrifice every just, noble, and public principle.

He faid, that it was well obferved, in the excellent petition from the Univerfity of Cambridge to that Houfe, against the flave trade, that, "a firm belief in the Providence of a "benevolent Creator, affures them that no fyftem founded "on the oppreffion of one part of mankind can be beneficial "to another." He felt much real concern and mortification that, in an affembly of the reprefentatives of a country, boafting itfelf zealous, not only for its own liberties, but for the general rights of mankind, it fhould be necessary to May a fingle word on fuch a fubject; but, from the fentiments he had heard in various converfations, very much to his furprife, it appeared, that, however ftrongly the fense of truth and juftice was impreffed on the minds of unprejudiced perfons, the deceitfulness of the human heart was fuch, as to change the appearances of truth when it ftood in oppofition to felf-intereft, as felf interet is often unfortunately mif understood. He verily believed, that there was hardly any thing fo execrably unjust and cruel, that men, who are thoroughly felfish and avaricious, would not bring themselves to believe to be right and defenfible, and would not, confe quently, adduce fpecious and fophiftical arguments to fupport; but he trufted, that every honeft man would treat fuch arguments with the contempt and indignation which they deferved, and that Britain, as a wife and virtuous nation fhould, would hold faft and cling to the eternal and univerfal principles of truth, juftice, and humanity.

He lamented that he had heard doctrines, maintained, which feemed to have been referved for times the most fagrantly profligate and abandoned; but he trusted that such doctrines would not be received, or even offered in that affembly. He never expected to hear that the everlasting laws of righteousness were to give way to imaginary politi

cal