Having made these remarks, he proved by a number of facts the folly of the
argument, that the Africans laboured under such a total degradation of
mental and moral faculties, that they were made for slavery.
He then entered into the great subject of population. He showed that in all
countries, where there were no unnatural hardships, mankind would support
themselves. He applied this reasoning to the Negro-population in the West
Indies; which he maintained could not only be kept up, but increased,
without any further importations from Africa.
He then noticed the observations of Sir W. Yonge on the words of Sir S.
Romilly; and desired him to reserve his indignation for those, who were
guilty of acts of rapine, robbery, and murder, instead of venting it on
those, who only did their duty in describing them. Never were accounts more
shocking than those lately sent to government from the West Indies. Lord
Seaforth, and the Attorney-general, could not refrain, in explaining them,
from the use of the words murder and torture. And did it become members of
that House (in order to accommodate the nerves of the friends of the
Slave-trade) to soften down their expressions, when they were speaking on
that subject; and to desist from calling that murder and torture, for which
a governor, and the attorney-general, of one of the islands could find no
better name?
After making observations relative to the cooperation of foreign powers in
this great work, he hoped that the House would not suffer itself to be
drawn, either by opposition or by ridicule, to the right or to the left;
but that it would, advance straight forward to the accomplishment of the
most magnanimous act of justice, that was ever achieved by any legislature
in the world.
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