cannot leave this question to be finally disposed of, without trespassing for a few minutes upon the patience of the House, that I may guard myself against the suspicion of having made myself a party to, what I fear may ultimately prove to be, a delusion-a delusion, however, unintentioned, I am persuaded, on the part of the right hon. gentleman; because, to do him justice, he has been, from the beginning, a warm advocate of every measure tending to the abolition of the African Slavetrade.

It is upon this ground alone-upon the knowledge of the line of conduct which has hitherto been pursued by the right hon. gentleman that I build my confidence that it is not his intention, however it may be that of others, to delude the House by getting rid of the motion of my hon. friend. That motion is set aside as being too abstract; and yet in that of the right hon. gentleman, which it is proposed to substitute for it, I find nothing specific, nothing practical, pointed out. True it is, the resolutions moved by way of amendment emanate from ministers, and are to be communicated to the Crown. But this, let it be recollected, is no new course. It has before been pursued, over and over again, with little or no effect. The hon. member for Seaford (Mr. Ellis), in 1797, moved some excellent resolutions (very similar to the present), on which he grounded an address to the Crown for ameliorating the condition of the slaves in the West Indies. Again, in 1816, the West-Indians, in conjunction with the right hon. gentleman's predecessor, moved resolutions in the shape of an address to the Crown-an address in which both Houses of Parliament concurred-calling upon the Prince Regent, in the strongest terms, to recommend to the local authorities in the colonies to carry into effect every measure which might tend to promote the moral and religious improvement, as well as the comfort and happiness, of the negroes. A more unexceptionable and comprehensive declaration could not well have been made by the warmest friend to the mitigation and abolition of slavery. But twenty-six long years have now elapsed since the first address was presented, and seven since the second, and where are the benefits, the visible effects of these addresses, to be found? We are, in fact, not one step more advanced in the great work of improvement than we were before.

No practical advantages have resulted from these addresses: and yet the last address in particular, that of 1816, was unanimously voted, and was carried by the joint recommendation of both Houses of Parliament, to the foot of the throne. It was also most graciously received, and a most gracious answer was returned, promising to carry the wishes of parlia ment into effect.

I am told, however-notwithstanding these facts staring us in the face-I am told, that my mistrust of the West-India legislatures is either totally misplaced, or at all events greatly exaggerated; and the hon. member for Bristol (Mr. Bright), as well as the hon. member for Sandwich (Mr. Marryatt), who went still more at large into the subject, have endeavoured to convince us that we are mistaken, and that the most satisfactory improvements have taken place. I wish I could take the same flattering view of slavery in the West Indies as the hon. gentleman. If I could, it would relieve my mind from the load which now oppresses it, believing, as I do, that the condition of the slaves in the West Indies is revolting to the feelings of human nature. My hon. friend, the member for Bristol, forgetting for an instant those habits so inherent in professional men, of distrusting the testimony of interested parties-forgetting that professional maxim, ever to be remembered, that "no man is to be trusted as a judge or a witness in his own cause❞—I say, forgetting all this, he makes his appeal to the unbiassed authority of slave-mastersto the pure, unsuspected, disinterested testimony of the owners of the slaves themselves! He tells us, that the result of his many conversations with them, and of his laborious efforts to obtain information from them, is a conviction that the condition of the slaves is so greatly improved, that they are now perfectly contented, and happy! The hon. member for Sandwich then, in his turn, informs us that gentlemen who have gone out with opinions hostile to slavery have been so converted by a view of the comforts and delights of that state, nay, even as it exists in Honduras, perhaps the most detestable spot on the face of the globe, a swamp, where the forests are still uncleared-a place, in comparison of which, such places as Jamaica and Barbadoes might without exaggeration be termed a perfect paradise-yet these gentlemen, who went out thus biased in their opi

nions, the hon. member tells us, were so converted by what they saw, as to come to the conclusion, that the negroes endured no misery whatever, and that all we had heard of the wretched condition of West-India slaves were mere idle tales! But there is one part of the speech of the hon. member for Bristol, to which I must for a moment address myself. I am told that I must not trust the book called "Negro Slavery," a work which certainly contains damning proof of the state of negro slavery in the West Indies. [Hear! from Mr. Bright.] The hon.. member seems by his cheer to adhere to his former charge against that work; a charge which I cannot but feel as one of a grave character made against one of my oldest and most valued friends.-[Mr. Brougham here entered at some length into a vindication of the character and accuracy of the author, and then proceeded.]-And what is the charge made against him? It is one of a specific nature, and I will admit that general character is nothing against a specific charge. The charge then is, that the author of this pamphlet has garbled and misquoted Mr. Cooper. So says my hon. friend. But I will go a step beyond my hon. friend for a correct view of this point. I will go to the author of the statement; to Mr. Cooper himself; and the House will judge whether it is probable that Mr: Cooper's statement has been changed, garbled, or misquoted, when I tell them that Mr. Cooper himself corrected the sheets for the press, and that every syllable of the pamphlet which concerned him passed through his hands before publication, and received his express approbation. After this statement, will it not be wasting the time of the House to say one word more upon the subject? But another evidence in favour of the author is the still more valuable testimony of his accuser, my hon. friend himself. The hon. member has read two passages to the House, and has observed upon the difference to be found between them; but, after paying the most studious attention to the two passages so read, I confess I cannot discover the slightest difference between the . one statement and the other. :

presented to be most happy, and co tented. Are things really so? Are th slaves in Dominica as happy as the ho member would represent them to be Honduras? The governor of Dominic says, indeed, that the slaves in gener appear to be liberally treated and pro tected; but I am curious to know ho soon after his arrival in Dominica thi letter from governor Maxwell was written and whether it was before or after hi having been presented by the grand in quest of the island as a nuisance, for in terfering to protect the slaves from cruelty. If written afterwards, it would only show how forgiving a character, wha a good-natured creature, the governo must be. It must, however, have been written before. And why, let me ask, was he presented by the grand jury of the island as a nuisance? Was it because he impeached the rights of the owner to the services of the slave? Or was it for illegally interfering between master and slave? No, nothing of this kind. It was only for wishing to put in force the laws of the island in favour of some unhappy negroes who had been most barbarously ill-treated by their masters. For this it was that the grand jury found a presentment against the governor for a nuisance. In proportion to the weight of such a fact as this, uncontradicted, to deny which not even an attempt has been made, down goes my confidence in the local authorities of the West Indies; all my hopes resting upon the exertions of these authori ties vanish into air. For what confidence can possibly be placed in the efforts or endeavours of those who have presented their governor as a nuisance, because he had made an attempt to put the laws in force against masters for their inhuman barbarity towards some poor helpless negroes? Down then, I say, goes all my confidence; down go all my hopes, my fond expectations, of the exertions, not only of these particular authorities, but of the legislative bodies in general, whose conduct has, on many occasions, been not a whit less strange.

In Jamaica too, I am told, all is perfect; and that the negro, who must be allowed to be the best judge of his own happiness, is perfectly contented with his lot-so well contented that he would not change it. But, unfortunately for this assertion, it appears, from consulting a single page of the Jamaica Gazettes, that it cannot be supported. It is curious

enough to observe the broad and unequivocal contradiction given by these Gazettes to this grave statement of the Jamaica Assembly-for it thence appears, that many of the negroes have shown a most pointed desire to change their happy situation. In a single page of these Ga zettes there are no less than fifty "Runa-ways"-persons quitting this enviable situation, not only with a certainty of many privations, but at the risk of all the severe penalties which attach to their crime. But let us look to one of the advertisements: "For sale: 140 head of horned cattle" I beg pardon of the House; that is not the paragraph I allude to. It is the next column which contains the long list of "Runaways."-"Cecilia, a young Creole Negro woman." It has been said that young women are never known to be punished in these realms of negro bliss, where they are so much better off than in their own country, that they ought to bless their stars that they have been taken from it. Such is the kind of language to which our ears have been accustomed on the subject of negro slavery, from the beginning of this controversy to the present day; but it proves a great deal too much, and consequently proves nothing. But facts must always bear down such arguments; and the very papers I have in my hand, while they describe the persons of the fugitives, distinguishing them by their various marks and brands the badges of the sufferings and the degradations to which these unhappy beings have been exposed speak volumes on the subject. But to proceed: Cecilia, a young Creole woman, five feet high, marked (branded!) S. M. and W. S. on top, on right shoulder, belonging to the estate of John Stevens." Then here is another, who "says he is free, but has no documents to prove his free dom." Then come several others, described by various maims, and marks on different parts of their bodies. Many have "lost several of their front teeth;" others are described as being marked with letters in a diamond on the shoulders and breasts, and having sores on the arms or legs, and scars on their faces or shoulders, with marks of flogging on their backs. And so they go through all the sores, and marks, and brands, and scars, and traces of the cart-whip, which distinguish these happy individuals, who, though we are told they are so contented, are yet, somehow or other, so insensible

to their own bliss, that they will run away from their kind-hearted, humane masters, by whom we have been told, too, that the whip is now in nearly total disuse!

I cannot but express my great_astonishment that the right hon. gentleman should have compared the negro slaves in the West Indies with the Roman do mestic slaves, and with other slaves of antiquity. And I am the more surprised, when I reflect on the classical taste and knowledge for which the right hon. gen tleman is so remarkable. There are cer tainly some points in which the condition of the West-India slaves resemble those of antiquity; but, speaking generally, the two states do not admit of a comparison. Will any man say, that in a country where the land was tilled by freemen, as among the ancients, it was possible the same habitual cruelty and severity of exaction could prevail, as in those colonies where men are compelled by the whip, by mere brute force, to cultivate the soil, and where habitual dread of the lash stands engraven on the very front of the system as the sole motive to exertion? Not that I mean to assert that the whip is always used, any more than the whip of a waggoner is always in use; but what I assert is, that the slaves on plantations are worked by placing the men and the women, of various degrees of strength and capacity, in a line, in which they are compelled to toil by the imminent fear of the lash being applied to their backs; and it is applied, as often as their laxity of exertion may seem to render it necessary. Such a system, I say, converts a man into a brute animal. All the noble feelings and energies of our nature, and almost all traces of humanity, are eradicated by this base practice, by which the man is made to work, and act, and move at the will of another, and is thus of necessity reduced to the level of a brute: it is a practice which makes its appeal, not to the qualities which distinguish him from the beasts of the field, but to those which he shares in common with them.

It is said, that efforts have been made to ameliorate the condition of the slave, by giving him religious instruction; and that since this question was last discussed in this House those efforts have been increased. If this be so, it shows at least the benefit of such discussions, since it is now admitted even by those who then so loudly cried out against them. We were then run down by clamour; we were ac

cused of doing that which would raise a | revolt through the whole of the West-Indian Archipelago; and we were loudly and vehemently charged with aiming a deadly blow at the interests both of the black and the white population in the West Indies. There was, it was said, no occasion whatever for our interference; the negroes had kind masters, tender drivers, a zealous clergy, amiable governors, and wise legislators, to superintend, control, and co-operate in works of humanity. But, notwithstanding all we then heard of this machinery of mercy, by our interference with which we might do mischief and could possibly do no good, it now appears that the effect of our discussions has been, that religious instruction has been much more widely spread, and that it is still spreading through the colonies. I am happy indeed to find the prediction of evil so completely falsified.

I observe that there is on the table a paper, and that not the least important on this interesting subject, which has not been referred to by the hon. member for Sandwich. I allude to the letter of a worthy curate, which enters into some details with respect to the religious instruction of the slaves. This worthy person states, with great simplicity, that he had been between twenty and thirty years among the negroes, and that no single instance of conversion to Christianity had taken place during that time-all his efforts to gain new proselytes among the negroes had been in vain. All of a sudden, however, light had broken in upon their darkness so rapidly, that between 5,000 and 6,000 negroes had been baptized in a few days! I confess I was at first much surprised at this statement: I knew not how to comprehend it; but all of a sudden light broke in upon my darkness also. I found that there was a clue to this most surprising story; and that these wonderful conversions were brought about, not by a miracle, as the good man seems himself to have really imagined, and would almost make us believe, but by a premium of a dollar a head paid to this worthy curate for each slave whom he baptized! I understood, too, that the whole amount of the previous religious instruction which each negro received, was neither more nor less than attending, on one occasion, at the church where the curate presided. Such was the mode of propagating religion which seems to have

afforded so much satisfaction, and to have given so much cause for triumph. If any person thinks that any real practical good can result from such an administration of religious instruction and of Christian baptism, let him enjoy his hopes: I cannot agree with him.

What then has been done, let me ask, since the abolition of the Slave-trade, to improve the condition of the slave? I think I now hear my lamented friend, sir Samuel Romilly, ask that question, as he once did with so much effect. I never shall forget the impression he produced upon those who, like myself, for ten long years had been indulging in a fond, but vain hope, that the abolition of the Slavetrade was all that was wanted for bettering the condition of the slaves. We have now unhappily survived him between four and five years, and with how much more force might we now put the same question? It was indeed long our hope, that if we did but abolish the Slave-trade, through the gradual progress of improvement, slavery itself would soon be extinguished. I myself gave into the delusion. I said, with others, "Leave measures of internal regulation to the colonial legislatures: only abolish the Slavetrade: it will then be the interest of the master to treat his slaves well, and under the influence of that feeling the condition of the slave must rapidly improve."

How bitterly have we been disappointed in these fond expectations! I beg, however, not to be understood as casting any particular blame on the owners of estates for this failure, for they have perhaps little in their power. We ought to be aware, that the state of landed property in the West-Indies is not in the feast analogous to the state of landed property in England, although it has often been erroneously compared to it. The owners of West-Indian estates usually reside in this country, and can have but a feeble control over the course of proceedings in the colonies. And though some of them, it is true, may have got their estates by inheritance, yet this is not the case with a great majority; they have obtained them by purchases on speculation, or by debt, having advanced money on mortgage and with a view to consignments. In short, landed property in the West Indies partakes much more of the nature of a hazardous commercial speculation, than of that stable enjoyment of territorial property which characterizes

the British landholder. Men in these circumstances, it is obvious, have no permanent interest in the soil. Their object is, to make the most they can in the shortest time; and therefore they will not be deterred by considerations of humanity for the slaves from extracting, during their temporary possession, by means of the uncontrolled power they possess over those wretched beings, the utmost benefit which the estate is capable of yielding.

But even if the owners acted with the best intentions-and many of them I believe do-they are absent, and know nothing of what is actually going on upon their estates. It is an individual who has no real interest in the estate, who is placed as their agent on the spot to superintend the whole concern. Some owners of estates may be very honest, honourable, humane men, who would not work their slaves too much; but what security have we that this will be the case with all, or that many may not even think it their interest to act otherwise? Indeed, I am persuaded that it is not so plainly the pecuniary interest of the slave-owner in all cases to be humane, as some have imagined. The West-India purchaser of an estate may consider himself engaged in a gambling concern, and may hope in a few years to scourge a handsome profit out of the unhappy beings committed to his charge; and he may even flatter himself, that he will clear a greater profit in this way than he would have done had he pursued a different course. His object is to get a great return in a short time; and although, in a long series of years it might be against his interest to over-work his slaves, yet, his object being a rapid return for his capital, he cannot wait the slow progress of improvement in order to attain it. It is very well known, and the simile is far from being a new one, that some post-masters use their horses exactly upon this principle. They might keep their horses longer alive, by making them do less work and by giving them better treatment; but they prefer making them do more work, though it may wear them down sooner, upon a mere calculation of profit and loss. Far be it from me to charge such a sordid calculation as this upon the West-India planters; but what I say is, that the identity of their interests and those of humanity ought not to be so much relied upon: you cannot trust to the former alone in the treatment of the slave, because I have shewn, that views of

'interest may be supposed to require treatment, in certain circumstances, wholly different from that which would be dictated by the principles of humanity.

Such being my view of the situation in which master and slave stand to each other, I confess I look with the greatest distrust, with the slenderest possible hope, to any real and solid advantage to be derived from the resolutions moved by the right hon. gentleman, and which refer the matter to the colonial assemblies. Let the House remember, that we have done the same thing twice before; the effect produced by it has been very small indeed; and I greatly fear that we shall only meet with further disappointment if we again resort to the same expedient. Those legislatures may pretend to meet fully the wishes of parliament, and yet may do nothing effectual; and, after five years more have elapsed without any progress having been made, we shall be again called upon, either by events which have happened in the West Indies, or by our own consciences at home, to look into the question in good earnest, when it will brook no further delays; and then we shall have the painful reflection, that if we had acted boldly in the first instance, five years of misery would have been saved to these unhappy beings.

ter.

How comes it to pass, I would ask, that no steps have yet been taken towards the amelioration of the condition of the slaves? For how many years has it, for example, been proposed to attach the slave to the soil? The question, I know, has been discussed; but why has no progress been made in consequence of that discussion? It has been said, that there are many difficulties to encounDoubtless there are. It would be hard upon the slave, it is argued, to be kept upon a barren soil, an exhausted plantation; but it seems to have been forgotten, that the very exhaustion of the soil, unfitting it for sugar culture, is in the negro's favour. But how comes it, that in the West Indies the richest soils in the world thus undergo exhaustion, while in other countries the poorest soils are subject to no such process, and do not, under ordinary cultivation, deterio rate, but improve? Is it not that a just curse seems, in the dispensation of Providence, to attend the cruel and bloodthirsty method of culture by slaves? else why would not culture keep the land in the West Indies in the same heart in