He utterly abhorred the Slave-trade. A noble and learned lord, who had now
retired from the bench, said on a certain occasion, that he pitied the
loyalty of that man, who imagined that any epithet could aggravate the
crime of treason. So he himself knew of no language which could aggravate
the crime of the Slave-trade. It was sufficient for every purpose of
crimination, to assert, that man thereby was bought and sold, or that he
was made subject to the despotism of man. But though he thus acknowledged
the justice due to a whole continent on the one side, he confessed there
were opposing claims of justice on the other. The case of the West Indians
deserved a tender consideration also.
He doubted, if we were to relinquish the Slave-trade alone, whether it
might not be carried on still more barbarously than at present; and
whether, if we were to stop it altogether, the islands could keep up their
present stocks. It had been asserted that they could. But he thought that
the stopping of the importations could not be depended upon for this
purpose, so much as a plan for providing them with more females.
With the mode suggested by his right honourable friend, Mr.
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