1 whereby the quantity of laboricus induftry might receive fupplies. But what above all other circumftances I must now infift on, is this: that five years importations have fince taken place; had there therefore been any fmall error in the calculations of my Right Honourable Friend, or had I. ftrained my fubfidiary arguments a little too far, it is impoffible to deny but that this must now be more than rectified, and that the Islands are at length in a state to fuffer not even a temporary inconvenience from the admiffion of this falutary expedient. If therefore you have any regard for the happiness of the flaves, or for the fatety of the Iflands; nay if you are even dead to these powerful incentives, and were alive only to confiderations of the planters intereft, you could not but confent to the measure I recommend to you, of topping the further importation of African Slaves. And now, Sir, abftaining for a while from thofe topics, which I confefs are after all the nearest to my heart, I will flightly touch on what were originally faid to be other disadvantages that would follow from the Abolition. I wish to add up every poffible item before I proceed to place any thing on the oppofite fide of the account: by this mode it will more plainly appear how much the balance is in my favour. It was originally urged that the African trade was a nursery for feamen, and that its abolition would therefore be highly injurious to our naval ftrength. This part of the fubject was very early taken up by a Gentleman whofe fervices in the whole of this great caufe can never be over-rated. I need hardly fay I allude to Mr. Clarkfon. He afferted, as the refult of a long and laborious inquiry, that of the failors employed in the African trade between a fifth and a fixth actually died, and that they feldom brought home more than half of their original crews. Nothing was more vehemently repelled or more obftinately refifted than thefe pofitions, till at length having long borne with thefe clamorous contradictions, we moved laft year for the mufter rolls, documents prepared by our opponents themselves, and kept in their poffeffion, and which cannot therefore be fuppofed to have been fabricated to ferve our purpofe. From thefe Mr. Clarkson's calculations were fully juftified: it appeared that of 12,263 persons, the number of the original crews, there had died 2,643, the average length of their voyages being twelve months ; whilft whilft on the contrary in the Weft India trade, in which the length of the voyage was feven months, of 7,640, the number of the original crews, there had died only 118. But the lofs by deaths was not the whole lofs to the country; for, befides the broken conflitutions of the furvivors, which rendered many of them for the rest of their lives incapable of the duties of their profeffion, fo many left their fhips in confequence of ili ufage, that they feldom brought home more than half of the perfons they had taken out. This laft circumftance was attempted to be accounted for, from the natural capricioufnets of fa lors; and it was faid that they ran away in as great number from the Weft India as from the Guinea fhips. The direct contrary appeared from the mufter rolls, and this too, though, from the different ways of paying them in the two trades, their forfeiting little or nothing by quitting the Weft India men, but much by quitting the Guinea men, the reverse might be naturally expected. I could fay much more on this fubject, and in particular I could open to you such scenes of cruelty to these unhappy men, as muft excite at once the concern and indignation of every man who feels for that mafs of his fellow citizens to which this nation owes fo much of her fafety and of her honour. But I will abftan from this painful detail, and only repeat what i juft now obferved, that in the outlet of this bufinefs nothing was more obftinately denied than our now no longer controverted affertions concerning the lots of feamen.-This may ferve to procure us credit on thofe points which are ftill in difpute, and prove that it is not necessary for our opponents to be correct in order to be pofitive. I will but just touch on the effects of immediate Abolition on our general policy, on our commerce and manufactures, and on the property of the places whence the Slave Trade is chiefly carried on. We have seen from the accounts upon your table how finall a part it conftitutes of the trade of Briftol and of Liverpool; and that it has become less profitable of late, cannot be denied by thofe Gentlemen who afferted that the regulations actually introduced would make it a lofing concern: for though it were faid that in the heat of oppofition they might have puthed their allertions a little too far, yet it will be hardly allowed them at one moment to fpeak of an actual lofs, and at another of an actual gain fo great great that it would ruin those opulent towns to be deprived of it. After the statements we have lately heard of the public finances and our immenfe exportations of British manufactures, who is there that will infilt much on our exportations to Africa to the amount of about 400,000l. or who that will not admit we might foon establish a commerce with that country more beneficial and more innocent, were we to put a stop to this inhuman traffick in the flesh and blood of our fellow creatures? Nor can it even be urged that the immediate Abolition of the Slave Trade would in this view be productive of confiderable prefent inconvenience. Confider what happens both at the commencement and clofe of every war; how in the former cafe the exifting channels for the conveyance of our manufactures are fuddenly barred up. The fyftem of political economy is of fo complicated a nature, that in innumerable inftances we find the effect of the evils we had apprehended prevented by means, of which before we had no actual ascertainment or diftinct perception. I remember it is obferved by Mr. Adam Smith, in his incomparable Treatise on the Wealth of Nations, that at the conclufion of every war more than 100,000 foldiers and failors are at once discharged; and we see no alteration in the wages of labour, or in any other particular which the sudden influx might be expected to affect. As to another branch of national policy, that I mean which concerns the extenfion of our cultivation in the West India Islands, I will fay nothing at prefent. From our evidence it abundantly appears, that the opening of new planta-. tions with imported Africans is a fyftem the most ruinous to the individuals concerned; and the intelligent reafonings of Mr. Irvine muft have convinced the Houfe that if this extenfion of cultivation be confidered only in a national view, it is by no means to be defired by any real well-wifher to the fecure and abiding profperity of this country. Thus, Sir, it appears that, leaving Africa wholly out of the queftion, Juftice and Humanity would dictate to us the Abolition of the Slave Trade in the ftrongest terms, as the only fure expedient for bringing the flaves into that ftate of comfort wherein it must be our common with to fee them placed; that in the Abolition alone 1 alone can the Islands find fecurity, and that this measure is enforced on us by the principles of found policy, and a regard to the political interefts of the British empire. But, Sir, though I have fuffered myself to dwell fo long on thefe confiderations, I now proceed to that part of the subject which indeed most interests my heart. LOOK TO THE CONTINENT OF AFRICA, and there you will behold such a scene of horrors as po tongue can exprefs, no imagination can represent to itself. The effects of this inhuman commerce are indeed fuch that we lend our affent to them reluctantly: yet they are proved fo clearly, that it is not poffible for any man to doubt of their reality; and were pofitive teftimony defective, the reason of the thing would have rendered it altogether unneceffary. How can it but follow, from our going to that country, and offering our commodities to the petty Chieftains for the bodies of their fubjects, but that they will not be very nice in the means they take to procure the articles, by the fale of which they are to fupply themfelves with the gratifications of appetites which we have diligently and but too fuccessfully taught them to indulge. One mode they take is that of committing depredations upon each other's territories; and the very nature and character of wars in Africa is such as might have been expeced from the great motive from which they originate: they are a fort of predatory expeditions, of which the chief object is the acquifition of Slaves ;-not but that, as it is natural to imagine, thefe often prove the occafion of more general and continual hoftilities, inafmuch as they greatly add to the causes of diffention between neighbouring communities.When on a former occafion I urged fomewhat to this effect, I remember the direct contrary was afferted, and in direct defiance of reafon and common fenfe it was faid, that wars had never been caufed by the Slave Trade. I repeated my reafoning, and urged that it was not to be expected that I could be able to adduce fpecific inftances in a country where letters were unknown, and the very existence, as well as the causes, of past events, muft in general be foon forgotten.Again, I was challenged to produce a fingle inftance; the natural barbarity of these people was defcanted on as being alone fufficient to render Africa a fcene of general carnage and in particular the cruelties of a certain King of Dah were enlarged on, and the dreadful flaughter which attended his invafion of a neighbouring kingdom. To fay nothing of the unfairness of extending to the whole of that vast district fron which we collect flaves, what at the utmost was only proved of a fingle kingdom, I muft own I was a little fhaken in my belief of the reprefentations of the ftate of this very kingdom itself, when I heard it faid by another Gentleman, (who though not favourable to the cause to which I wished well, gave his evidence with a franknefs and fairness which did him great honour, I mean Mr. Devaynes,) that the Dahomans were a very happy people. But how was I aftonished, how did I admire the ftrange coincidence, when I found in this very king of Dahomey, the very fpecific inftance that had been required of me; and that these very cruelties of his, in the conqueft of Whydah, on which fuch stress was laid, were committed by him in a war undertaken with the view of punishing the adjacent nation for having ftolen away fome of his fubjects, for the purpofe of felling them for Slaves. This curious anecdote was brought to my notice by a noble friend of mine, to whofe friendship on this, as on many other occafions, I am greatly indebted in his valuable compilation you will read the tranfaction at large; and the reflection is very remarkable which the conduct of the king of Dahomey, in this inftance, extorted from an hiftorian, who though himfelf concerned in the Slave Trade, feems not to have loft all fenfe of its enormity. king's actions carry great reputation, for by the deftruction of this Trade, he relinquifhed his own private interefts for the fake of publick juftice and humanity; and I have a natural propenfity to with the king of Dahomey well, fince he has redeemed his countrymen from being fold as Slaves." * "The But, Sir, the exciting of wars between neighbouring States is almoft the lighteft of the evils Africa is doomed to fuffer from the Slave Trade: it is indeed one of the greatest calamities to which we are liable in this more highly favoured quarter of the world, but it is a LUXURY in Africa. Still more intolerable are thofe acts of outrage which we are continually ftimulating the Kings to commit on their own fub Lord Muncafter's Hiftorical Sketches of the Slave Trade, and of its Effects in Africa, addreffed to the People of Great Britain. jects: |