He would now go to a new part of the subject. An opinion had gone forth
that the abolition of the trade would be the ruin of the West India
Islands. He trusted he should prove that the direct contrary was the truth;
though, had he been unable to do this, it would have made no difference as
to his own vote. In examining, however, this opinion, he should exclude the
subject of the cultivation of new lands by fresh importations of slaves.
The impolicy of this measure, apart from its inhumanity, was indisputably
clear. Let the committee consider the dreadful mortality, which attended
it. Let them look to the evidence of Mr. Woolrich, and there see a contrast
drawn between the slow, but sure progress of cultivation, carried on in the
natural way, and the attempt to force improvements, which, however
flattering the prospect at first, soon produced a load of debt, and
inextricable embarrassments. He might even appeal to the statements of the
West Indians themselves, who allowed that more than twenty millions were
owing to the people of this country, to show that no system could involve
them so deeply as that, on which they had hitherto gone. But he would refer
them to the accounts of Mr.
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