The

trade was replete with fraud, cruelty, and rapine. facts were acknowledged, and on record; even Mr. Long, before quoted, confeffed, "That, in Africa, it was certainly "the custom to go to war, for the purpose of making flaves." To deny these charges, had been truly owned by Mr. Edwards, even in the Affembly of Jamaica, to be no better than "mockery and infult." That it was indeed mockery and infult, Mr. Smith faid, he would never ceafe to repeat in the ears of every one who fhould attempt to contradict what had been fo inconteftibly proved: and, for himself, he was ready to declare, that, as an Englishman, he should never be happy, while he confidered his country as contributing, by perfevering in this traffic, to perpetuate mifery, and to encourage the commiffion of every species of crime.

From the conceffion of his honourable friend, of the already meliorated ftate of the flaves in our colonies, and his affertion that an increase was actually begun, it had been argued, that immediate abolition would be a violent, and, therefore, an imprudent measure; and that it might affect public credit. But furely nothing could be plainer than that an increase commenced, was the beft poffible answer to the charge of violence, as it precluded all danger of injury to the flands, unless from their own fubfequent mifconduct; and though he would chearfully and confidently commit the queftion of public credit into the hands of a right honourable gentleman, yet he could not avoid obferving, that this argu ment was, like many others, indeed, which gentlemen had ufed, a mere petitio principii-an affumption of the great point of the controverfy.

In what remained for him to obferve, he fhould proceed with the lefs fatisfaction, as a wide difference of opinion might lead him to treat very lightly the arguments of his honourable friend, who had opened the debate of that day (Sir William Young) by whom, however, he knew he fhould be acquitted of any perfonal difrefpect. The honourable baronet, with fome other gentlemen, acknowledging the object aime I at, to be in itself highly praifeworthy and defirable, had atgued against the propofed measure, on the ground of its inefficacy to the attaiment of the end; becaufe, that, though we might inftantly abandon the trade, it was impoffible for us totally to fupprefs it. Allowing then this impoffibility of a total and immediate fuppreffion, were there no important advantages to be gained by our dereliction of the commerce? whether we confidered our own honour, or the probable efficacy of example, would it be nothing publicly to recognize and establish a great and juft principle of con duct, in an affair of such vast moment? in the extermination of every evil, and especially of those which were fortified by

the

the fanction of time and authority, it was neceffary that fome one fhould lead the way. Let the British Parliament then, as became the fenate of a virtuous and enlightened people, bear its decided teftimony against this flagrant iniquity: let it maintain its foremoft rank among the nations, by fetting a noble example, and he would not affront the House by the fuppofition, that its conduct would have no influence on the other countries of Europe. But fhould all feelings of honour, or of generous emulation, in fuch a caufe, fail to operate, he doubted not that France, and Spain, and Holland, and Denmark, would foon learn, from our experience, that, by proper management, fuch as it was no less the duty than the intereft of every country to enforce, American Colonies could be cultivated without the neceffity of continual fupplies, equally expenfive and difgraceful. Nay, he was perfectly convinced, from a long and careful investigation, that, in most of the islands, it was merely the existence of this fupply which prevented the actual increase from being, even now, perceived.

The reafoning of the honourable Baronet, on the contrary, he was forry to think, tended to the perpetuation of the abufe; as univerfal concurrence in any political measure, however wife, was not to be expected. Every man knew that the custom of felling their prifoners of war into flavery, exifted among even the moft civilized ftates of antiquity; and no one was fo chimerical as to imagine, that it would ever have ceased, had it been neceffary to have waited for its abolition till all nations, in general affembly, had renounced i by mutual confent. But we might do more than merely Jay down principles, or propofe examples: we might, in fact, diminish the evil itfelf immediately, by no inconfiderable part-the whole of our own fupply; for he could not at all agree with the honourable Baronet in what feemed to him a commercial paradox, that taking out of an open trade, by far the largest customer, and leffening the confumption of the article, would increase both the competition and the demand, and, of courfe, all thofe mifchiefs which he allowed to be the uniform confequences. Nor could he admit, in exculpation of this trade, that it ought not to be made answerable for thofe acts of barbarity with which the wars of favages always were, and ever had been, ftained; or that, by its kind interference, many were only doomed to perpetual flavery, who would otherwife be devoted to deftruction. He fhould have confidered thefe cruelties as affording another, and a most powerful motive, for putting a period to a certain and acknowledged cause of these wars, rather than as a reafon for fuffering the cause to exift, for the fake of an uncertain and difputable alleviation of the evils which it occafioned.

That

That the civilization of the Africans was promoted by their intercourse with the Europeans, as at prefent conducted, was an idea utterly void of all foundation; as appeared most undeniably from the tenour of the evidence. In drefs, in manners, and in difhonefty, they had, indeed affimilated much with those who frequented their coafts; but the greatest degree of industry, and the leaft corruption of morals, generaly prevailed where they were leaft acquainted with the benefits of this civilizing connection.

To relieve the continent of Africa from the miseries occafioned by famine, was another of the benign reasons for continuing to excite wars and to carry off its inhabitants. That famines had fometimes occurred, he did not doubt; that they were either very frequent or very deftructive, the proof was extremely flender indeed; but that they fhould annually vifit those devoted countries, and with fuch arithmetic exactness as to render neceffary a remedy fo violent in its execution, but fo uniform in its quantity, was a circumftance. moft extraordinary-fo wonderful indeed, that, could it once be proved, he should confider it as a far better argument in favour of the divine approbation of the flave trade, than any which had ever yet been produced.

As to the effect of the abolition in the Weft Indies, he was convinced, notwithstanding the arguments which had been urged, that fo far from being ruinous, it would give weight to every humane regulation which had been, or fhould be, made; by fubftituting a certain and obvious intereft, in the place of one depending on chances and calculation. An honourable gentleman had declared that, were the planters but convinced of the poffibility of cultivating their eftates, without farther importations of negroes, they would be happy to be freed from the expence of purchasing those fupplies. This conviction, he believed, might be attained, if their reafon alone required it; for, of all the legion of authorities which the honourable gentleman had brought to prove the impoffibility for which he contended, there was fcarcely one, which might not be preffed to ferve more effectually against him. Almost every planter whom he had named, found his negroes increase under the good treatment he profeffed to have given them. And, in the iflands of Barbadces and Dominica, if, on the one hand, the proper ufage of flaves had been proved by the refpective Governors, it was alfo at least equally incontrovertible, from the evidence, that importations were not requifite to keep up their numbers. To the fame point, and with equal ill fuccefs, Lord Macartney, who had refided three years in the Weit Indies, and whofe character he highly refpected, had been quoted; and what had his Lordfhip faid on the fubject? when

the question was firft put to him, in the Committee, whether it would be prudent to abolish the flave trade, his Lordship had answered, that he was an incompetent judge. His Lordship was asked the fame queftion a fecond time, and gave the faine anfwer. Yet his Lordship, it was evident, knew just as much of the bufinefs as feveral other Governors and military perfons who had been called, who, nevertheless, in fupport of preconceived opinions, had spoken very decidedly from very incompetent information. Nor had fome other gentlemen been more cautious. Of the great island of Jamaica, which contained more than one half of the flaves in the Weft Indies, it had been seriously afferted, by several witneffes, that all poffible means had been there ufed to keep up the stock by breeding, although it was allowed, that the morals of the flaves had been totally neglected, and that the fugar planters preferred buying a larger proportion of males than females; both which circumftances were acknowledged to be in a high degree unfavourable to population.

The great misfortune was, that prejudice, not reafon, was the enemy to be fubdued, and he was forry to fay, that the prejudices of the Welt Indians, on thefe points, were numerous and inveterate. An hiftorian of their own body, fpeaking of the various difficulties raised against any propofed improvements, had defcribed them in terms, which he could fcarcely have ufed, without incurring their refentment; as

abfurd," antiquated," and even" deteftable," and yet, that with refpect to the negroes, this gentleman himself was under the influen é of the blindeft prejudice, his own words afforded irrefragable proof. He characterifed them generally, as replete with the extreme degree of every evil quality, unallayed with the finalleft mixture of any good whatsoever; and justified the practice of confining th 'm in chains on board the African fhips, on account of their "bloody, cruel, and malicious dipofitions." And though, after having given an account of fome of the Aborigines of Jamaica, who had miferably perifhed in caves, whither they had retired to efcape the tyranny of the Spaniards," he added, in language, worthy of an enlightened and philofophic hiftorian, leaving a glorious monument of their having difdained to "furvive the lofs of their liberty and their country," he was yet incapable of perceiving, that this natural love of liberty might operate as ftrongly and as laudably in the African negro, as in the indian of Jamaica.

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He was yet more concerned to acknowledge, Mr. Smith faid, that these prejudices were yet farther itrengthened by refentment against thofe perfons who had brought forward to the public eye, circumftances, by which the state of legiflation and of fociety in the Weft Tudies was undoubtedly

deeply

deeply disgraced; and who had, to ufe their expreffions, impertinently interfered in the management of their concerns. He was not at all furprised that men of reputation, of honour and of humanity, fhould feel quick refentments at finding themfelves involved, to a certain degree, in the difgrace of crimes, of which they knew themselves incapable; and the commiffion of which, many, for want either of information or attention, were difpofed to disbelieve or even to deny.

In exculpation of his friends and himself, Mr. Smith faid, he must tell fuch gentlemen, that the relations which had been given were no lefs difgraceful than true; and that, on this head, they had proceeded, not wantonly, but tenderly, in the business that the facts which, out of many others, had appeared, they had thought it abfolutely neceffary to produce, not with the view of fixing an unmerited ftigma, either on the whole body of Weft Indians, or much lefs on innocent and valuable individuals; but to prove the degraded and neglected ftate in which the flaves had been fuffered to exift; which had incontrovertibly appeared, not from any evidence that extreme ill treatment was the general fyftem, but from the frequency, the notoriety, and, beyond all, the impunity, of various fpecies both of legal and of illegal abuse.

That they were expofed to much mifery in confequence of their fituation, was not only true in fact; it might have been previously afferted, without fear of contradiction, from a knowledge of their circumftances and of the pernicious effects of arbitrary power in the hearts, even of the best of men. Far worfe confequences might reasonably be expected, as an honourable gentleman had well obferved, from a union of the three characters of party, judge, and executioner, too often in men unprincipled, uneducated, and prompted by intereft alfo, to acts of feverity. The flave too, was more unfortunately fituated even than the brute, as being capable, from the fuperiority of his nature, of exciting, in a higher degree, the paffions of his tyrant, he was liable to experience more violent effects of his refentment. And fuch effects were fometimes produced, and openly exhibited as would, in this country, excite a tumult of deteftation and abhorrence. General Tottenham had given in evidence, that, in 1780, in the public ftreets of Bridge Town, the capital of Barbadoes, he inet one of the most deplorable objects which the human eve, perhaps, ever beheld. "A youth about nineteen," to ufe his own words, " entirely naked, with an iron collar about his neck, having five long projecting fpikes; his "body, both before and behind, was covered with wounds; "his belly and thighs were almoft cut to pieces, with run"ning ulcers all over them, and a finger might have been YOL. XXIX.

"laid