In support of the continuance of such a
traffic, he knew of nothing but assertions already disproved, and arguments
already refuted. Since the year 1796, when it was to cease by a resolution
of Parliament, no less than three hundred and sixty thousand Africans had
been torn away from their native land. What an accumulation was this to our
former guilt!
General Gascoyne made two extraordinary assertions: First, that the trade
was defensible on Scriptural ground.--"Both thy bondmen and thy bondmaids,
which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen, that are round about thee;
of them shall you have bondmen and bondmaids. And thou shalt take them as
an heritance for thy children after thee to inherit them for a possession;
they shall be thy bondmen for ever." Secondly, that the trade had been so
advantageous to this country, that it would have been advisable even to
institute a new one, if the old had not existed.
Mr. Wilberforce replied to General Gascoyne. He then took a view of the
speech of Lord Castlereagh, which he answered point by point. In the course
of his observations he showed, that the system of duties progressively
increasing, as proposed by the noble lord, would be one of the most
effectual modes of perpetuating the Slave-trade.
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