In the first place, it had but very little connection with the
former at all. Its connection with the latter was principally on account of
the saltpetre, which it furnished for making gunpowder. Out of nearly three
millions of pounds in weight of the latter article, which had been exported
in a year from this country, one half had been sent to Africa alone; for
the purposes, doubtless, of maintaining peace, and encouraging civilization
among its various tribes! Four or five thousand persons were said also to
depend for their bread in manufacturing guns for the African trade; and
these, it was pretended, could not make guns of another sort.--But where
lay the difficulty?--One of the witnesses had unravelled it. He had seen
the Negros maimed by the bursting of these guns. They killed more from the
butt than from the muzzle. Another had stated, that on the sea-coast the
natives were afraid to fire a trade-gun.
In the West Indian commerce two hundred and forty thousand tons of shipping
were stated to be employed. But here deception intruded itself again. This
statement included every vessel, great and small, which went from the
British West Indies to America, and to the foreign islands; and, what was
yet more unfair, all the repeated voyages of each throughout the year.
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