He had no concern
either in the African or West Indian trades; but in the present state of
the finances of the country, he thought it would be a dangerous experiment
to risk any one branch of our foreign commerce. As far as regulation would
go, he would join in the measure.
Mr. Burke said he would use but few words. He declared that he had for a
long time had his mind drawn towards this great subject. He had even
prepared a bill for the regulation of the trade, conceiving at that time
that the immediate abolition of it was a thing hardly to be hoped for; but
when he found that Mr. Wilberforce had seriously undertaken the work, and
that his motion was for the abolition, which he approved much more than his
own, he had burnt his papers; and made an offering of them in honour of his
nobler proposition, much in the same manner as we read, that the curious
books were offered up and burnt at the approach of the Gospel. He highly
applauded the confessions of Mr. Stanley and Mr. Ryder. It would be a
glorious tale for them to tell their constituents, that it was impossible
for them, however prejudiced, if sent to hear discussion in that house, to
avoid surrendering up their hearts and judgments at the shrine of reason.
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