Star. — London, England, 1804-05-30 00:00:00

aher patellas or our own titnes. Such elk, in the Jars of Leo Africanus, was the Rate of population upon the *natio( Africa, until barbarized by inter sour& with civilised Europeans, who, to their eter nal reproach. lathed of endeavouring to civilize, have medicated eery veltige of religion and home vitt. Crimes and &perdition that fled before the feeble fway. of Mahomedanifin, have Rood their hare full face of that fort of Chriflianity which g: sa ropeans have pretended to promulgate amongt them. Bat furrly much better were it to be coat cot in air wickednefs, and at mite abjure the Chrif tiao Beligion, than preach it only for the purpofes of violation, pereerfion, and debafernent. Such, how ever, was the (hoodoo of Menu morals upon the whole African coat for three or four thonfand miles; Mid in many platzs the country. 'to a great extent, was depleted by our means. If any thing could ex ceed the horrid %kicky of the arqagems for pro. curitigillema, it was the cruelty exercifed in their conveyance horn Africa to the Weft Indies, which &Organdie fuels palpable prooh to tbe Houfe of Com move, that they feemed eager to adopt hose tneadine for plating a flop to Inch wanton wafts of human lite, aid to endeavour to check the horrors and abomina tion perpetrated upon chafe unhappy titian on the 'fifer, by regulating the number of fives according tie the tonnage of the tetras in which they were con vapid, sod pri,viding for fowl accommodations ba lk** the Hate of bursas beings. Another heavy of which be had family complained in s: sai unlit, was not merely the enflavensent 7 aeronauts viainss theerafelves, thus torn from dirk weary and friarts, but their offspring to the Moat pollerity ; but, upon that occafinn, st was hetet Mid u_sfeeinigiy argued, 'hit, to talk of ten t/Mb* old b. y towards fah beings, was not ttlissifibill' He was, indeed, amazed to hear fuch aldiatilies terming from men not of low authervity, alillatellserely as the hefty affections of men, made enitbelper tithe °realm for want of argument, lea nod coullyelerled by an biftorian, a man lim e s; s° education, sad talents—Mr. Long, Jamaica. whofe book, obviou(ly cal althilidairmie as influence upon this gullies . % grave .4lhatillis African Negroes ate litsle letter 11 . the Antics if the Ourang Oittang ; dadmifiraArn g loch an ie's. no dotast la. Monad, 'fit to* treated is bruits. marl; Proof =ilis taw& civilization i sod a of this dation. their bat -, ' tot. roi alit elillakis. 'But this a Cordon. fo font a . Ili ike treads., of dew was ta the shfelwilliss * . Ain Mho toed him. sad to the ootothity of „.,..„, by inteettoverttlik proofs Men are alike to she fame nog es. and lbfceptibls to all the , 'Ord hatred, injury and Umtata; dr aft feketnsent. as the molt -availed ow 'A' slier, sloe very friendly to the 11- . 'dffaltralabldie Tell Coeful of Truce, was et War 'WM Mr. 'Lang on this point I for 21,direlleolllMemsrhe for their..fagacity, ~, wilany to tejory or favour, and t , tlilltiwir of gabareedy vaaarkable.thao. for I* Ahrthlik eistb &Won towards their chit ens i sod it war be vomited, Pretty obvious to he ink* frons.vediest trashaintism the Welt In dia, dun that! bran. es they eras called, are not iifibeible to the bielliets of freedom, or the feelings . if litienrolly. ' bfr.. Lai, in reeking of theiz mi. dee carat', refrain's it in a hoard tete of the Ma nicaltirreet evildoers. end that they are in or rill &age Rate of herbalists and !topic' indolence; ttest gust part of the country is utterly defolate. and ova with briars and brambles. True it is g l : Pa the touter? may be defolate. but who has made *Rif the horrid machinations of Europeans to pro hole the Slays Trade. The natives have, in many inflates, berried themfelves in the bofom of almot Louttalk ferrets, or imp:arable morales, actef e only by intricate paths. in which two perfons Aetna walk abreaß, and that only with the purport if guarding themfelves splint furprife from thole alsoh contagious appinach they contemplate with Illarrer i mainly, the civilized Europeans. There site the'men Whom Mr. Long. and his partizans, re futer,' as degenerated to brutes. But how truly raiquitoos is it. thus to libel the creation of GOD ; and. inflead of fueb a listens:in, exciting us to mica • tour at civilising end enlightening this devoted race, Alm it is to operate is an apology and jallitcation fir &clean their darknefs Rill more. fur increafing their ignorance. and enhancing their barbarifm. E was hosewhat curious to &fare, that the Spaniards, in their &it conqueft of the American Indians. and reducing them to flattery, jollied the horrors of theit conduit to that unfortunate people. by the very hate fpecies ofergernent ; for they alerted the In dians were not men d but a (pecks of (etym. or large 0111, who might be maffacrea without any qualms rili cOnrcience, whenever the intact, or the whim of tie conquerors. induced them to their deltrudion ; rod thus they were treated, until rekned from their delrardation by the Ball of a Pope in the year 1517, which lasted. that his Holing(' being de fi rous cf eta. analog certain bitropricks in America. it had pleat ad him to acknowledge, that the Americans were stue men I thus it became expedient for the alvecates a the Slave Trade to degrade thnfe whom they witted to opines, and to brand with the denomina tion of brutes. thole whom the Gals? CRIATOI of the univerfe had Co eminently diflinguithed by the great ditinguifising charateritic of human nature, Me apprebenfirso of future evil. But happy would k be for this oppugn' and degraded race art men, if, iillead of a ratsroal foul, they were end.,wed with else infenfitsiiity of brutes, to blunt the acumen of the masks they were doomed to fuller under their civi lized talkinallers. But that thnfe reputed brutes 1! * ive ( rec e n tl y like men, he thought fomething which bed recently paired in the Wet Indies funiciently roved. sad (hewed that they have a reafoneblc ca pacity to concert meafures with continency, and tray them into eh.% with vigour; and that it is not as handful of Europeans, however civilized. armed, or illkiplineel, that could prevail againti any number Weber( reputed braes. It had been impaled to him. mid tholk Who fuppmted him on former °minors, Blot their argtureents proceed from warm and preiu• Ada heliage. unwarranted by real fags ; but he wand appeal t o the moll eminent writers upon this fliblea, and win. were themfelves European almas if an Sem Trade, for thenrooft of his pe arguments, which snitusg. occ pubiilheil numbers of years be- fore the 'abolition of the trade became a 'SAO it difeurrion. Mr. Brune, a French writer on i t h eA pik ).ls* can trade, Rates that it was cullomary to the kings of the country to go to war upaillighti other for the fate of ing captives as the . beki merchandise they court:el:duct to trade with the Europeans; and that when a king failed in one of , thofe expeditions, or was repotted, he turned upon his own fubjeas, and feized and fold them as naves! to that it appears that the very fame means were ufed by all the traders to Africa Or the very fame end.— Mr. Brune Rates, that the French thensfelves. when they could not procure a fupply of flares with tuffs cient quicknefs, tallied forth a force, feized upon, a village, and carried away captive the whole of its in habitants. But when, in tech a cafe, they had taken a greater number than they ought, with tome danger to the game, as it were, on the African King's manor, they made their peace by paying for the Miler. — Mr. Wilberforce quoted a number of other authors to the fame effete, and particular!? a Mr. Moore, a writer in 1740, who Rates. that for the purpofe of promoting the Slave Trade, the punithments of the African diaries near the coati were changed into habiliment, which arofe entirely from European in teroonrfe. Previous to that time, as was Rated by Leo Africanus and many others, the punilhments of the African criminals were very eght banithment aeven was the pash. and this, after no very long 'Vence, ems remitted. It bad been Paid they *ere ()SVCS is their own country, and therefore there could be no great harm in tranfporting them as naves to another; but this eatery in their own country was nothing to bad as even our claim of vilLeinage, wi der the feudal fyßem ; and eminent writers agree, that it was fcarcely poffible to diflinguing maßer inns Rave, as both fed together, and were clad alike; but bow different this from thetavery in Jamaica, under the whip, and entailed upon all polterity land Parke land leveret other modem writers agree in Rating the happinets of the Africans in their own country.— tinedge Ratement had been made on a former mat han, de t *hots naves were not taken away by this trade. they would be enalracred ; but the only proof which could be adduced in fupport of this at krtgon was of a tingle difrie, fo (mall and infignifi cant as not to form any proportion worth attention. But even if the of ertion was true. mug it therefore be in argument to jollity the Slave Trade to the end of lime I Bet the evidence of Parke proved it fah . ..a— Mather objeftion was fo profane in idelf, that be heated it *as even profane to ootice it t he meant the }verification of the traffic from the Scriptures. Tbefe bad bees thermoses as which hie prepofition had faireaerirrellaed, with reference to Africa.— Wheat the cafe of the middle patty ? The "iota wined remember that it was at full attempt ed to be moved, and his opponents wereamaß confi dent on this point, that the haves, in their .paffage, were treated with as much Hangs, and as much et. tention paid to their accommodation, as if they were the friends of the owners, while they were Rowed la the tined in faith a manner that one could not tread. =them witbvt treading on them. The Ho- Gentletnadhad Rated the anfwers that had lama given at the Bar by feveral perfons who had been examined as to the effea it night have on the. trade, to limit the number of haves to the proportion ,of two to a ton, all of whom agreed ib declaring that it would be the ruin of the trade. Yet a lets proportion had been 'Rabbeted, that is of five for every two ton, and the trade had, be was Corry to fay, ingested. It had been fisted, that if the trade were to have been abolifhed, it would deßmy a nur fery of the Britith Marine ; and it had given bins much pain to think that the defence of the country refted upon fuch wicked means. But on inquiry, it Chad appeared, that inftead of !import, the African "trade was a drain from the marine of the country.-- And naval men, otherwife not inclined to fnpport his propnfition, had attelled this fee; and that on boarding an African ttader, they could feldom and a ;hand worth taking : The La Was, that of 12,263 feamen employed in the African trade, 2,643 died in one year, whereas only 323 died out of the fame number employed in the Welt India trade. If his opponents, therefore, bad been miftaken on points which they had Willed on with fuch confidence, they could not now be entitled to much credit. The flat,- ' meat of the deaths had been taken from their own I mutter rolls brought from Liverpool by order of the I House. Another part upon which much are& bad been laid wt', that the abolition of the trade would he injurious to our commerce, and that we &gold nut find other means of employing our capital. But a Gentleman who had lately directed very laudably hit attention to the fohje4t, had proved that only one thirty-fourth part of our home exports were difpufed of in that trade, and that the capital engaged in it did not exceed one million. It appeared alfo, that within the left eleven years our capital in the other branches of commerce bad inc reefed by eleven millions and an half. anal with fuch an augmentation of capi tal, on the general trade, he thought we might eatily reconcile ourfelves to the lots of the peefeut channel for the employment of that one million, or difpole of it in another way, ..vithout having it damned with Wand c. tainted wi th vices. Thefe were the objec tions that had been urged tohis propofition with refer ence to Africa, to the Middle Palfage, and to the effect it would have on the marine and commerce of the country: There was another, however, which feemed to have had moll weight with the Houfe in reference to the Well Indies. 'the great argument undoubtedly as this head had been, that it would be impodible to keep up the flock of haves without importation. — The fad wag, that the la,-ne race had increafed in every other part of the world. They had increafed in America, they had increafed in Bencoolen, and ir. St. Helena. The Caribs of St. Vincent, Who were original!' the cargo of a 'Oil wrecked upon the Bland, had iiicrea.cd. The Maroons in Jamaica, who WPC flares that ran away on our firs taking pi:Faci a= of the Maud, bad increafed rapidly. In fad, Mr. Long himfelf had dated, that the tinmellic haves Increafed, while the ilantation ar fi.W haves only decreafed. He bad even hated, that the field naves alfo iacreafed wherever the produce bore a certain proportion to the numbs of the nave., that is. wherever a certain nii.rber of hogfticads only were produced. If the Etch! Mayes, therefore, de created, whilli the fame race were increalinz in every other r diary, it mull be from the elect's of labour which they ate compelled to undergo. Slavery had at all times opera.ed aminft the multi' licction of the lawman !pecks, in aacteat times as ell as modern, lama& !a Horne kid, it was cheaper to pirohak a fcrGast than to rear one from its birth, an I this ' *telpher had illuffrated his re a f on by 'resat is iSsiftifed with regard to brutes tamed for the are of Man, In the Weil !tidies 3or 4.000 lives were every year eommitted to perfons for education, whole feel ings and knowledge were ill accorded to the heft means of keeping up the flock. The fy item of bring ing up the young flaves was in fa& fo victims as to be fuificient, even of Well, to account for a rater decreafe than any perfon could conceive ipWe.7ts He woard not go here into the particulars of the nut management in the Weft Indies. The veined* fault was, that the naves were not thillviently fed, j , and that was the principal difference between the Weft Indies and America, where they had three times the quantity of food. Bet there were differ ences fall more unfortunate in our glands; for what was allowed to a run-a-way Negro in his imptifon ment in Jamaica was double what was allowed to a working Negro in Nevis and St. Vincent's. There was alfo a material difference between the American Ne groes and there of the Weft Indies, with refpett to the dittribution of their labour; in America they worked. by teat, which was the means of procuring them Come hours in the day to employ for their pwu be neat. It was not the berth treatment of a mailer or overfeer that was principally to be lamented in I the condition of thofe unfortunate beings ; though the bare confederation that every man w h o could command soh might be the abfoltne mallet of a fellow-creature was revolting, as tyrants? •was ren dered more cruel ; cruel, according as its fphere was narrowed. and a angle Have may have to ,endure all the tortures that a wicked man could Whit. Whet he particularly alluded to was, the general Lute of degradation by which they were ground down to the very earth, which was primed by the , laws of the Colonies, and which was fo low, that in order to purchafe for himfelf and his children the coadition of a free negro, the free negroes.and even mat of colour being thessfelves in a late of dove. dation and contempt, a (lave was frequently content to part with the whole ravings of a long life. He scald adduce many other proofs to thew, that she vices of the fyitem were alone fulfiticat to account for the mortality, if a mortality modes,. But that aseetatiey, even from the accounts of the planters themfelves, if it exiffed at all, exifted only in a very minute degree. In Jamaica, on which he formed the account as the lead favourable, and taking it at the didances of 6o year', 30 years, and to years; the decreafe was originally 4 per cent. then it gradually funk tog per cent.; for the 20 years following it was only y-dths, and in the ?alt ao years it was bat 3.3ths. In the other Illands the decreafe was the. f ame or rather left; in Barbs Osad does, Antivia, end Pominka, the numhers kept up. Even this tt . • smears of 3-gths per cent. may lee I accounted for the • hurricane in 17 8 0 , in which 55,000 Oseas. ' been lat. The rardeakm of dm middle palings now afforded a reamer herebereas proportim - of dm former loft, therefore he kid a right to conclude that as many were born as died. lie was glad to have eitablithed this, becaufe though he could not have yielded to policy, even if fairly urged. when juftice was oppo(ed to that pulley; yet it would have been painfUl that the intered of the kingdom Coffered by doing what was due to juftice and humanity ; and he therefore felt double fatis; faition when he was founded in et:winding, that the Negroes would increafe if the Slave Trade was totally abolifhed, and Come fatuttry reforms introduced in the mode of treating thole now in the colonies. He .addneed the teflimony of M. 14 AAAAA sr, a man ofd information on the rubies% to (hew that the mortality had bees leased in St. Domingo fence the revolts tion, becaufe abfolote red had been allowed to the pregnant women, and the young haves were not , worked Co hard. If limiter reforms were adopted in 1 our Wands ; if the women were (pared in a Gtua tion in which decency and humanity required that they atomic, be allowed indulgence ; if the young ne. pries were left hardatipped, the fame bene ff eial cos requences would be felt. If an increafe was espeti sewed in America from a difference of treatment, un der circumitantes of degradation fimilar to thpfe that obtained in our inland, an inct cafe was to be caper!)-, ed by us on the reformation of the treatment given by us. If any thing was to be complained of in the proceedings of the Committee in 1793, it was. that fo much pains were taken to fatisfy the fcruples of thofe who were interened, by proving what no en lightened man had a doubt of, that which was foun ded in juftice was alai founded in policy. He would not go into the argument that other nations would be bale, weak, and v. 4 .cked enough to purfne this in famous traffic, if we did not. There was no •vice. no crime which might not be jultified on this pion, if it was allowed to thole who were intruded to fearch the world for limiter initances of guilt. Another ar gument was, that the Welt India Legillature was to be tonfulted, that it was not to be outraged, that the planters thould be allowed time to fill up the members of their Rock. The Honfe would recollea that this ar gument had formerly great weight, and that much latitude had been allowed. For his part, he knew that it was vain to expea a hearty co operation in oppofition to prejudices and pat Thins. The importa tions have not been made in late years for the purpofe of keeping up the flock. but for the put pole of form ing new plantations. With all their privileges alive, with all their feelings irritated, with a general jots. reit which kept them all in countenance, he did not hope for the concurrence of the colonifts. It was evident that every year they hogged the SLtre Trade clofer, and that they never would willingly give it up. On the grounds that he had now gone over. the Houle had re folved on the abolition of the Have Trade in a -792. The pea Ind fixed for its termination that was the yearl796; thole who defiled to place it at the greaten dit tance fixed it for 'goo. The Well India colonies had aEted as if they %edited to make to, believe that the re peal relied or us, not on them ; they faid it was a Idraiitt trade, it was Britith capital that was embark ed in it, not theirs ; but afterwaids they laid they had a right to enjoy the benefits of the trade, and the ad vantages of carrying nevelt.. On that oetation he had the fatisfaaiLa of a larger majority than had ever been known on any driputed point. All that was refpeelable in chrtratler and taloa on either fide of the Hoek was a ith him, and theft who Were in oppofition wese only a few whom local inrcreft in. duced to take the part they did. If an 1795, there was fuch a fenfe in Parliament of the Injoiftice and mifcry iu which a large portion of the human race was involved by this trade ; if it was at that time al. lowed in the Weft Indies, that fuch mifchiefs intended it, what fenfe moil now be entertainedoof it, when every motive that then "(Mailed was more prelLng end urgent for its conclulion. Since that time prc lin* above soo,iroo haves had been imported into oar Waft India Colonies. Siace die time he had fir mentioned this fubjea. above 3 00 ,0n 0 bad been taken t in of Airiest, tarn from their families for ever. Amain alone .1 0 4 . ja ka n 140 .000, which was far above what was data demanded by took who rated its wants mod high ; awd it was sersain that Winch a demand had been made them not above one fourth, owe fifth, or Okapis NW funk of it would have been allowed. The lasportatiese t eonlidered even in the pecuniary adita*M4e of laying out the capital, was a thing the policy of which was much to be queltioned. This capital was veiled in fecnrities menaced portico toady at the recent time front without and from within. Capitdi wts :laid out at a profit of 41. per cent. in Jamaica, in the other Mantis at 31. or 61. In the courfe of the laft twenty years, a Remit part of the plantations had been thrown up. - becaufe they would not pay for working ; many others Were fwallowed up by mettpges. The fait was, this branch of cultivation was takes op as a kind of Lot tery, fo that if there was a general lois, Come gained by it. Credit was given to pedals in this buts* who would not be credited in any other. Here die Right Honourable Gentleman argued from the waft drain which the Wen India Colonies made on the population of this country. Even before the Ante. man war they bad reprefented that the vaft difpro portion between their black and white - population. rendetadit neeellary to• have a great number of Bri. tills troops for *their feentity. Since 1759. 3 blacks hail been imported, and the ;metals of ° 4?:; : s ' had not been above one-fifteenth or one-twentieth. Undet the& circumllances, when the Al embly.of the inandscalled fee troops, it fhoold be reconciled that the daim e which they somplained of was Created by the in • and averse* of this importation. It was \ nem ry to confider how far this dram was comfit rat with oar demands for other fervice, how far it tom mitfiaent with what was measly for the main- I lemmas of mew Oriental patriots, and to put a flop to a traffic which was the misfit of Co dellruaive a collifisteptioil. A forcible impinges moil have been made in the mind of every man on this fubjeft by die lite tranfaitions in St. Domingo, and with inch an /unapt* before their eyes would oar colo nies be Co Pod as girlie on importing ? With fuch an example of infnerodlioa before their eyes, was it not infitention to have imported alltaxio Negroes, according so Mr. Lang, in two years. He alkyd if OA could let t with between 4 and svo,ooo No. groes in St. Domingo, with nearly the fame number in Guaddoepe, with abundant Means of communi cation, aid cof exciting our Norma► were we not called open by every motive of polity as well as Inane, to reform, to prevent the calamity ?_, Bat it is impolable to introduce reform, while fie& thou-• fascia, bombs far Wear, were added so the al ready terrible difpropornon. it had been fail, that it was nos right to agitate Misfit** is the Cent tickle& Rate of the 'Weft Indies. Thin was et Ihto objealon. It was not the (importers but the oppo nents of his primofitions that had.eseited an alarrnby confounding emancipation with the ablition of ia. portation: He and his friends had not looked for emancipation, in any other degree than as the entries of the myptietors would beveled them to it, if the is:mammon was flopped. Bet if they went on in crufmg the danger, was it to be (woofed that Par liament was therefore to abflain from reform. Theis topics had now been difeared for fifteen or flatten years, and no inforreaion had arifen in confequence. There was in lift no delicacy in the Weft Indies on this head. An intereourfe was kept up between our Wands and Si, Domingo, which the Jamaica mer chants endeavoured to iorreafe beyond what was. per mitted, bemire they found their. itninediate Minh in it. How were the Negroes to be infostned of dm debates in the Bikini ,Parliament ? Did they take in Cobbett's or Woodfall's Regalia la fisa, the Jamaica • and St. Chtifinplutr's Newipmeashave Rated, whet mutt have more influence therrtbe dilfeuthon here,- that St. Domingo had &then of Reinke, It was abfurd to fay, that they wen to In mare afefted . AL what palled here than by what was is their own im mediate horizon. The danger of infh•ireetion hung over them like death : it mutt come boater or later.. It had been urged, that the mailers would treat their naves well bet-alio it was their interefti that the tap- . tains would take dm middle pagage, and give like good treatment, betook it was their intereft. argument of good condita from intereft accorded ill with humors natoreb.adiere the interel was digant. 'and the. paffions operated upon its objeft with ware firainedicontroul. :The Roma Emperors commit ted thefe horrid crinkles whidi-foeceeding generations have been fis much chocked to tear, notbecaufe, up on refleaion, their interell bade them ; but their pat lions diaated, and their intrieß did not immediately oppose; interell was a lining agent on the human mind, only when it oiled in aid of a piton or Jo for cibly and immediately as to be Will - a pathon. I .et this imputation he abolifhed then interefi would 18, for there would be no other means to keep up the Rock, then the vices of the preterit fyltem may be Correfied ; whereas many doubted ohetber iewould be their iii tere:t to ccrrea them now. He was Corry to de tain the Houle fo long, but the Route would remember the fitnation of thofe, who& fufferings he called on it to reds efs : Gentlemen fat here info:Lie comfort, even while then feelings were wounded by hearing chafe miseries detailed. Let Gentlemen Look at the hiflory he had laid before them. in the befell• in the middle, and iu the end; let theta tee, that by a vote of theirs it Was in their power to pus an end to them, and they would not grudge their:irk of time they had been engaged by the quellion. Per haps this wit the lad time he fhould have to addrefs the Hoofe on skis fuhjea, he &odd therefore notice particularly one clafs of men whom he had not ap pealed to before. Since his former appeal to the Hotee a new Parliament bad been allrellbitd, a Timber of new members had been irooduced, and r milderahle ateethon had been made by Metn bcrs from Ireland in cmfeeincnce of the Vaion.-- it was the boa ft of Ireland, that its f,il produced no venomous creatures s it Was a prouder bostl, that it was not Rained w 4 th the traffic of bonne Mood ; and the Reprefeotatives of behind had now en opportunity of fhewir.g their detellation of that liowseful trade. He called upon them 00 TCMCIT Count , knowl that pi denied tberef blot tl now ii perfus Atm log it callec may tat