Mr. Drake said, that he would oppose the abolition to the utmost. We had by
a want of prudent conduct lost America. The house should be aware of being
carried away by the meteors with which they had been dazzled. The leaders,
it was true, were for the abolition; but the minor orators, the dwarfs, the
pigmies, he trusted, would that night carry the question against them. The
property of the West Indians was at stake; and, though men might be
generous with their own property, they should not be so with the property
of others.
Lord Sheffield reprobated the overbearing language, which had been used by
some gentlemen towards others, who differed in opinion from them on a
subject of so much difficulty as the present. He protested against a
debate, in which he could trace nothing like reason; but, on the contrary,
downright phrensy, raised perhaps by the most extraordinary eloquence. The
abolition, as proposed, was impracticable. He denied the right of the
legislature to pass a law for it. He warned the Chancellor of the Exchequer
to beware of the day, on which the bill should pass, as the worst he had
ever seen.
Mr. Milnes declared, that he adopted all those expressions against the
Slave-trade, which had been thought so harsh; and that the opinion of the
noble lord had been turned in consequence of having become one of the
members for Bristol.
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