He would observe too, that the Hindoo-peasant drank
his water from his native well; that, if his meal were scanty, he received
it from the hand of her, who was most dear to him; that, when he laboured,
he laboured for her and his offspring. His daily task being finished, he
reposed with his family. No retrospect of the happiness of former days,
compared with existing misery, disturbed his slumber; nor horrid dreams
occasioned him to wake in agony at the dawn of day. No barbarous sounds of
cracking whips reminded him, that with the form and image of a man his
destiny was that of the beast of the field. Let the advocates for the
bloody traffic state what they had to set off on their side of the question
against the comforts and independence of the man, with whom they compared
the slave.
The amendment was supported by Sir William Yonge, Sir William Pulteney,
Colonel Tarleton, Mr. Gascoyne, C. Brook, and Hiley Addington. On dividing
the House upon it, there appeared for it seventy-seven, but against it only
seventy.
This loss of the question, after it had been carried in the last year by so
great a majority, being quite unexpected, was a matter of severe
disappointment; and might have discouraged the friends of the cause in this
infancy of their renewed efforts, if they had not discovered the reason of
its failure.
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