Dundas against the clear and
irrefragable calculations of Mr. Pitt. The former had argued, that, because
Jamaica and the ceded islands had retained almost all the slaves which had
been imported into them, they were therefore not yet in a situation to
support their population without further supplies from Africa. But the
truth was, that the slaves, so retained, were kept, not to maintain the
population there, but to clear new land. Now the House had determined, that
the trade was not to be continued for this purpose. The population,
therefore, in the islands was sufficient to continue the ordinary
cultivation of them.
He deprecated the idea, that the Slave-trade had been so sanctioned by the
acts of former parliaments, that the present could make no alteration in
it. Had not the House altered the import of foreign sugar into our islands?
a measure, which at the time affected the property of many. Had they not
prohibited the exports of provisions from America to the same quarter?
Again, as to compacts, had the Africans ever been parties to these? It was
rather curious also, when King James the Second gave a charter to the
slave-traders, that he should have given them a right to all the south of
Africa, and authority over every person born therein! But, by doing this,
it was clear, that he gave them a right which he never possessed himself.
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