civilization of Africa, and indemnify our merchants and ship owners for fuppreffion of the traffic in queftion. These were affumed to arife on the fuppreffion of the flave trade; but the flave trade cannot be fupprefled by a partial dereliction, and the grounds are loft on which these great resources were to be fought out.

A right honourable gentleman, (Mr. Burke) whose extraordinary genius and acquirements have been, and will be to the remotest times, the fubject of delight and of improvement to every ingenious, and to every intelligent mind. he, Si, with a difcernment immediate as comprehenfive, stated on the first agitatation of this bufinefs, "that in adopting "the measure propofed we muft prepare to pay the price of "our virtue." I am ready to pay my fhare of this, or any price; but the object of purchase must be afcertained: is it the happinefs, or is it the wretchednefs of thoufands? We muft not be allured from our duty by mere names; if in affumed benevolence we estimate not the effect, it is not benevolence, it is diffipation.

Some high-minded and ambitious fpirits, who, towering above the fympathies and feelings of ordinary men, talk of principles in the abftract, or if they condefcend to an application of thofe principles, yet as if all was to bow to their own pride of mind, meafure out their own materials, their own frame of men and circumstances to work upon. These men talk, for I have heard them talk, a language fpecious perhaps to fome, but which I fairly confefs my incapacity to understand. By humanity being the principle as applied to this question, I fhould fuppofe humane treatment, and confequences of more goodness and more happiness, to be the object. "No," say thefe wonderful orators, "a traffic in "human flefli is not a moment to be borne with; let it be "carried on by whom it will; let it be aggravated by all the "miferies incident to a contraband trade of life and fever "under the torrid zone; let the confequences of Great Bri"tain fuppreffing fuddenly her share of it be what they will; "the national honour, glory, and character require that "fuppreffion; the confequences are not at our door.". My anfwer is fhort: my confience tells me that the confequences are at our door. The prior declaration may fuit the Statefinan, who, dealing with brother Statelmen, is accustomed to rest his all on a plaufible manifefto of caufe, but the Moralift, who in the humbler path of life, meditates" on peace and "good will towards man," will venture to call fuch Statefman refponfible for confequences. For one, I would not too haftily or crudely, even with regard to the Africans, forego my right to interfere as a British Senator, in regulating this trade to alleviation of its prefent evils, and ulti

mately

mately to attainment of all the advantages which the best and moft fanguine friend of freedom and of man can promise or devife. Mean time I would not forego my right to interpofe regulations, respecting objects of fale in Africa, refpecting demurrage on its coafts, refpecting the tranfport to the Weft Indies, or the fettlement of the flave on the plantations. We on our fide may do much, but I fear not to affert, that the British trade to Africa for flaves will principally be abolifhed in, and from, the West Indies. Mean time, it is competent and proper to us fo to provide for that event, as to obviate the paroxyfm of calamity and diftrefs which a more fudden and declaratory act by the mother country would occafion both in Africa and in our proper Colonies. . In regard to our Colonies, a fudden abolition of the trade for African negroes would yet farther defeat its purpose of humanity held out to us, and produce the moft unequivocal oppreffion and mifery of the flaves in the islands. The hopourable gentleman who first agitated this bufinefs, muft obferve, that I ever induftrioufly feek to meet him on his own. and most favourite premifes. Far from crouding philanthropy out of fight by details of political expediency, I ftudioufly bring it to view. Proceeding to that part of the fubject which comprizes the relative fituation of thofe in our Colonies, whether mafters or flaves, as dependant on the refult of this question, I muft folicit more particularly your attention: Imuft beg the Houfe well and warily to confider the propofal fuggefted of great and fudden innovation on our colonial and commercial fyftem, reverting in fuch their confideration to principles of policy ordinarily accepted in all times, and in all countries, under good and wife Government. Let us obferve how fuch fudden divulfion of interests. as hath been fuggefted, fhocks every juft fenfe of action derived from experience and obfervation, of the cautious and intricate workings of policy requifite in the rooting out old habits, in the putting men afide from ancient practices, and in the fubverting prefcriptive or legal claims and rights on fpeculative reafonings, however juft and true. Let us, as men, hesitate to ufe that rigid difcipline even on the paffions and prejudices of men, which is fuited rather to exafperate than to amend : let us prefer the directing and the leading our Colonifts and others in the way we deem right, inftead of rudely forcing them from the way we deem wrong. Thus we fhall act on principles of reform fuited to a free Government; and above all, fuch temperate procedure is moft indifpenfable, if Government hath at any time regulated, protected, nay, even inftituted and rewarded the very courfe of adventure to its fubjects, which it means thereafter to reprobate and fet afide. When, in fuch cafe, charters

of

corporate bodies, and pofitive laws of the land, under which pro erty hath been engaged and fecured, are to be annulled, it is but fitting to require that the act fhould not be marked with violence, but rather be palliated by precautions, and preparatory experiment of tendency, to thew that nothing but extreme neceffity, if that neceffity is found to exist, will induce the intervention of a direct act of Legislature, in change of its ancient, its own fyftem. If deeds are to be cancelled, and laws repealed, under which all in our Colonies, and many in Great Britain, have embarked their very means of fubfiftence, is it too much to afk, that fuch deeds fhould be cancelled at leaft with form and folemnity; with fomething like kindness and concern; protracting all at of power on the part of the mother country, till urged by the refractory difpofition of the Colonies, in providing for the change of measures required; not rudely tearing the papers by which their properties are held, and thus adding wantonnefs to infult, infult to ruin. And now I would afk, if a fingle inftance, if one fymptom even of fuch refractory difpofition hath appeared in the Colonies, as warrants the British Parliament to fuppofe, that the feveral Legislatures will not act, nay, are not acting, temperately, wifely, and humanely, to attain the object pointed out to them, and making the fairest experiment in proof of the honourable gentleman's affertion, that a natural increase of negroes in the Weft-Indian iflands may be effected by an ameliorated fyftem of legiflation; and that in the refult, a trade to Africa for flaves will be no longer neceffa: y.

If you interrupt the Colonies in their temperate procedure, by crudely and widely attempting an anticipation of the end they have now in view, they will never attain that end; whatever in the means fuggefted by the new Grenada act, or confolidated aft of Jamaica, or other Colonial acts, is beneficial, will be for ever loft, and cut up by the root, if an abolition of the ilave trade is, by a direct and immediate act of the mother country, at once declared; a coincidence in its views on the part of its Weft-Indian dependencies, cannot in fuch case operate; hard neceffity inuft induce other confiderations. Their humane policy will ceafe to be practical, if not fupported for a time by that African trade which may fupply them with women and young people.

Yet the temper of their prefent proceedings affords prefumption, that the humane policy of our colorists will continue to operate, however it may lofe of its efficacy. tinue to foothe the miferies, though unequal to remove the It will conevils of a decreafing population;-and we must take shame to our own errors and temerity, if we throw impediments in its way, and fruftrate its purpose and prefent promife.

Indeed we put our fellow-fubjects in the colonies to a fe vere trial: we coatrovert their character of benevolence, and yet claim their benevolence: we bring diftrefs on their affairs, and then we expect exertions of experiments and of improvements from the ftate of embarraffment and of ruin which we have involved them in.

I fhall fhew, on teftimony not to be controverted, that a direct abolition of the trade for flaves must tend to diftrefs; no language hath been omitted which may tend to degrade,— and diftrets and degradation muft tend to alienate thofe in our colonies,-that is to fay, thofe who may be found indifpenfable to the framing any feafible plan for the benefit of the flaves; and who must be the inftruments to give it force and effect.-Permit me to fuggeft, that ruin, ignominy, and difaffection, afford premifes but ill fuited to fchemes of improvement in agriculture, of amendment in morals, or of co-operation in reform. I am not fo ignorant of the principles of a free Government, or of the rights of British fubjects, as now for the firft time to be taught," that allegi"ance and protection are relative terms.'

Having affumed diftiefs and ruin in the colonies, as the probable refult of prefent abolition of the trade for flaves, i will bring forward, I will bring home to view not an ima ginary, not a diftant cafe, but the moft fair inference, on facts and statements to be found fpecially in the minutes of evidence before the Houfe; and which will remove every doubt of the effect of prefent abolition of the trade to Africa for flaves, to the ruin of the planter, the merchant, the mortagee, and laft, not leaft, to mifery of the flave, of the poor African or Creole flave now working on the plantations. Having ferved no one purpose of philanthropy in Africa or in the Weft Indies,-having aggravated mifery on both fides the Atlantic.-Such is the refult to compenfate truly for the immediate lofs of British commerce, and eventual deftruction of the British colonies: is it too much to fay of Great Britain itself? Before 1 adduce evidence as to the probable effect, I fhould adduce evidence as to the premiles on which the effect is to operate. Thefe premifes confift of various matter, but all combined, and neceffarily to be viewed as one great whole, in application to the queftion of fuddenly fuppreffing the trade for flaves.

The actual fate of negroes in the colonies, the proportions as to fex, their proportions as to young and old, and to the stages of fucceffion in life; their morals, their manners, and much elfe in their ufage, as well as habits, inimical to increase of the fpecies, afford grounds for afferting, that the negroes neither do nor can multiply by natural means, circumftanced as they are at the prefent hour: ad

ventitious means for a time to come, are neceffary to fupply thofe connections in fociety, which may give fair promite of increase at a future period, by the ordinary courfe of births. Such temporary fupplies, co-operating with the prefent at tention of our colonial Legislatures to the inftruction, and to the more ficure and more happy fituation of the flaves, may, I doubt not, produce fuch effect. But fuch future ef fect is dependant on prefent fupplies, and for a period to

come.

That the negroes on the plantations do not at present generally increase by births, was a fact admitted in the 10th and 11th of the original refolutions brought forward by my honourable friend. He advanced, indeed, that the annual excess of deaths above births, diminished fucceffively in each period to the year 1787 in Barbadoes and Jamaica. In the very able fpeech of Mr. Bryan Edwards, delivered at a conference of the Houfe of Affembly, and of the Council at Jamaica, the very grounds of the above calculation have been proved to be delufive: the number of negroes being at one period taken from the tax rolls, and then a comparison drawn at another period, not from the numbers taken from tax rolls, but from the estimate, the mere guefs of a Governor or others—in those distinct grounds, no relation of cafe or criterion can be affumed.

Mr. George Hibbert, in page 396 of the fecond volume of evidence ftates, on inveftigation made with care, and ap parently accurate, that the decrease in Jamaica is of two and a half per cent., that is, of one and a half more than is ftated in the above refolutions; and it is very remarkable, that Mr. Hibbert fhew's the decrease to be greater in the latter, than in a former period of nineteen years. If this circumftance is attributed to hurricanes and to epidemic disease; in answer, I must state my apprehenfions, that hurricanes and epidemic difeafe are fufficiently frequent in the West Indies to warrant their making part of a general estimate. But even admitting the pofition advanced in the refolutions to its fullest extent, it doth not prefume an excess of births above deaths on the general average; and it cannot escape notice, that the inftances brought forward in exception, of particular eftates having a regular increase of negroes by births affect that general average, and afford an inference of further decrease on the remainder,-that is, on the greater total of eftates. If, for inftance, an annual lofs of four is faid to fall on the number of twenty; and in a distinct five of that twenty we find that one again fupplied, then the lofs

* Vide Mr. Edwards's Speech, printed for J. Debrett.

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