or the consciousness of an honourable office? What object fo noble as this of relieving the miseries of thoufands upon thoufands of our fellow creatures; introducing christianity and ci vilization to a fourth part of the habitable globe? I am, indeed, confcious of the honourable nature of the office I have undertaken, and grateful to God for having permitted me to take the lead in the communication of fuch extended bleffings. My task is one in which it is impoffible to tire; my work repays itself, it fills my mind with complacency and peace. I lie down with it at night with composure, and rife to it in the morning with alacrity. If it obliges me to be converfant with scenes of wretchedness, this is but like vifiting an hofpital from motives of humanity, where your own feelings repay you for the pain you undergo. No Sir, no; I never will defift from this bleffed work; but I cannot help perfuading myself, that there will be no call for my perfeverance; I will not allow myself to doubt about the iffue, and cheerfully wait the event of your decifion. Mr. Wilberforce then moved. "That it is the opinion of this Committee, that the trade carried on by British fubjects, for the purpose of obtaining Slaves on the coaft of Africa, ought to be abolished." Were this motion carried, Mr. Wilberforce gave notice that he intended to follow it up by another. "That the Chairman be directed to move the House for leave to bring in a bill for the Abolition of the Slave Trade." MR. BAILLIE.-It is upon the certainty of meeting with every fpecies of indulgence that is ufually granted, by this Honourable House, to all its new Members, that I mufter confidence fufficient to offer my humble opinion upon the prefent question; a queftion, Sir, of the greatest importance that ever came before Parliament, novel and fpeculative in its nature, and fupported by fome of the greatest orators who have ever appeared within the walls of this Houfe. There is no man living entertains a more indifferent opinion of his own abilities than I do; and I feel most fenfibly, and with great mortification, the infufficiency fufficiency of my powers, when brought into comparison with the brilliant parts of the Honourable Gentlemen with whom I have to contend. However, Sir, being very particularly fituated as Agent to one of the moft valuable of our Islands, having pafled the most active part of my life in the Weft Indies, having in the British West India Islands a confiderable property, both in land and Negroes, and being at the fame time as much interested in the general welfare and profperity of the trade, the manufactures, and the navigation of Great Britain, as any Gentleman in the prefent Parliament, I flatter myself that this Honourable Houfe will not confider my interference as improper; efpecially, Sir, when I can aflure the Honourable Committee, that I confider the present Question as involving in its confequences a confiderable proportion of the trade and navigation of Great Britain, and the very existence of those valuable Weft India Colonies, which have been established by this country for upwards of a century, nourished, cherished, and fupported, under various Acts of Parliament, and at the expence of a very ferious and weighty outlay of money. I will not, Sir, at this early ftage of my argument, make any obfervations upon the defcription of people who have fo very eagerly, and with fo much zeal and industry, propagated and brought forward this unfortunate and impolitic Question: I will content myself by obferving, that they have very artfully placed the management of the business in the hands of an Honourable Gentleman, refpectable in his Character, and amiable in his manners, and for whofe private virtues no man entertains a greater value than I do. This Gentleman, Sir, is the known and avowed friend and favourite of the Right Honourable Gentleman who fo very ably, and f) worthily prefides at the head of the Adminiftration of this country. His arguments, upon a former occafion, operated upon the Minifter's mind, and at the fame time extended their effects to the mind of the Right Honourable Gentleman who makes fo yery confpicuous a figure upon the oppofite fide of the House. There is neither in or out of Parliament, Sir, a man who is a greater admirer of the incomparable and brilliant abilities of these Right Honourable Gentlemen, than I am; I confider them, Sir, as ornaments to this House, and ornaments to their country; but however I may be difpofed to bow, with all due fubmiffion, to their opinions upon other occafions, yet upon the prefent question I differ I differ from them most effentially: I mean, Sir, I differ from the opinions they gave upon the former investigation of the queftion; for, from the circumftances that have occurred in the Hiftory of the Western World, fince the clofe of the laft Seffion of Parliament, I flatter myself that they are now made fully fenfible of the evil and dangerous tendency of the measure. However, Sir, to come to the Right Honourable Gentlemen in a Ministerial capacity, I do maintain, without meaning any perfonal offence whatever, that the part they acted, upon the Queftion's being debated in Parliament laft year, was unexpected, very unbecoming their high characters, and not at all confiftent with the principles upon which, in my humble opinion, great Statesmen ought to act. I conceive it, Sir, to be the indifpenfible duty of men in high fituations, and who are, or may be, intrufted with the lead of public affairs, to confider the general interest of the State, and of individuals, with a moft fcrupulous and attentive eye, and to fee that the good policy of the country, and the good underftanding that has long fubfifted betwixt Government and our fubjects in our distant Colonies, under the fanction and protection of various Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain, fhould not be broken in upon by fuch a wild, fuch an impracticable, and fuch a vifionary fcheme, as the prefent queftion for abolishing the African Slave Trade. I flattered myself, Mr.Chairman, that the friends and promoters of the Abolition would have contented themselves with the mischiefs that had already arisen, in confequence of the agitation of that unfortunate measure; and that the fanguinary difpofition of a certain description of people, would have been fully fatiated with the innocent blood that has already been spilt: but, alas! Sir, that is not likely to be the cafe; many of them have been known and heard to exult at the calamities we daily read of, fo that in all probability, the mifchief is only done in part, and it requires the total defolation and deftruction of the Weft India Colonies of Great Britain to complete the melancholy feene. I have in my hand, Mr. Chairman, a fmall pamphlet, printed and published by order of the Weft India Planters and Merchants, for the use and information of the Members of both Houfes of Parliament; it contains, Sir, the fpeech of the Deputies of St. Domingo to the National Affembly of France, and alfo the fpeech of M. Boftrand, the late Minifter of the Marine, to the faid Affembly Affembly, upon the infurrection of the Negroes in that island. If, Sir, the deftruction of the most extenfive and most valuable colony in the world, the maffacre of its inhabitants, the ravishing of the most beautiful part of the creation in a manner hitherto unknown and unheard of, and the unnatural murder of fathers, by the hands of their own children, are fufficient to operate upon the feelings of humanity, there is not, I am perfuaded, a Gentleman in this Houfe, who can withstand the fhock; but to me, who have a personal knowledge of the theatre of thefe dreadful fcenes, and who (though an Englishman, and at St. Domimgo in the very glorious and fuccefsful war that was carried on, under the auspices of that great and immortal Statesman Lord Chatham) received diftinguished marks of kindness and hofpitality from many of thofe families, who by the late melancholy events have been tranfmitted to oblivion, they are doubly afflicting; and when I bring to my recollection, that the caufes of all thefe calamities have originated in Great Britain, I am overwhelmed with forThe ifland of St. Domingo, Mr. Chairman, is as large as the kingdom of England. In the year 1789, the imports into the colony from France, exceeded three millions sterling, exclusive of near thirty thousand Negroes, which at a very moderate valuation, may be estimated at two millions fterling more: the exports from the colony, in the fame year, amounted in value to fix millions fterling, and their trade gave employment to three hundred thousand tons of shipping, and thirty thousand feamen. Thefe circumftances, I take the liberty of mentioning to the Honourable House, as a confirmation of the teftimony I gave before the Committee of the Houfe of Commons, when fitting on the Slave Trade in the year 1790. In my evidence on that occafion, I believe, Sir, I gave it as my opinion, that the African and Weft India trade of France generally employed betwixt forty and fifty thousand feamen; and when it comes to be confidered, that the produce of St. Domingo is hardly equal to two thirds of the whole produce of the French Weft India Colonies, I flatter myself it will be admitted, that I have not exceeded in my calculation. row. Having faid fo much, Mr. Chairman, by way of introduc ́tion, to what I have to offer upon the queftion before the Honourable House, I muft now beg leave to make fome obfervations upon the fpeech of the Honourable Gentleman who bronght brought it forward, which I will endeavour to do, in as concife a manner as poffible. I will afterwards take the liberty of calling the attention of the Honourable Committee, to the value and importance of the Weft India and African Trade to Great Britain; to fome of the authorities under which the West India Colonies and African Trade were established; to their dependence on each other, and to the injuftice and impolicy of the prefent attempt to abolith the African Slave Trade. The Honourable Gentleman who brought forward this question, has made ufe of nearly the fame arguments, on the prefent occafion, as he did upon the difcuffion of the fubject last year. And though it may be confidered as tedious, and even infulting in me, to go into the particulars of a mafs of evidence, which I take it for granted every individual Member of this Honourable House is perfect mafter of, yet it is in-. cumbent on me, fpeaking generally on the fubject, to take notice of the very partial manner in which the Honourable Gentleman and his triends have garbled, from the whole body, fuch particular parts of the evidence, as were fuited to anfwer their own purposes and with what an indecent indifference they have treated the teftimony of the feveral great and respectable characters who voluntarily came forward, on our part, to remove that load of calumny and at ufe, which has fo illiberally and fo wantonly been thrown out against every perfon connected with the Weft Indies. I am very far from denying, Mr. Chairman, that many acts of inhumanity have been committed in the tranfportation of Slaves from the Coaft of Africa to the West Indies, and in the treatment of thofe Negroes after they had been landed on our Iflands; but, as I believe, Sir, that the failings and frailties of human nature prevail generally, in pretty much the fame proportion, all over the world, I mean among civilized nations, it would be very unreasonable to expect, among the clafs of people concerned in the African Trade, or among the inhabitants of the British Weft India Islands, a degree of perfection in morals, that is not to be found in Great Britain itself. Will any man estimate the character of the English nation, by what is to be read in the records of the Old Bailey; or, will any of the most fanguine friends of the Abolition, pretend to fay, that there have not been committed, in this great and opulent city in which we live, acts of as fhocking, as bafe, and as barbarous a nature, as |