The Sun. — London, England, 1804-05-31 00:00:00

IIivIPERIAL PARLIAMENT. HOUSE OF PEERS. WEDNESDAY, MAY 30. THE consideration of the Ay lesbury Eleetion Bill, which stood for a second reading this day, and on which - stage Counsel - were ordered to he heard in support of the different Petitions, was adjourned till Friday. Lord THURLOW was sworn and took his seat. The Bills before the House were forwarded in their respcaive stages. The Judgment upon an Appeal Cause, which stood for to.day, was postponed, and some private business disposed of; after which the House ad journed till to-morrow, when their Lordships stand summoned upon the Marquis of ABERCORN'S MO- Lion. HOUSE OF COMMONS. WEDNESDAY, MAY 30. Mr. I. H. BROWNE brought up a Report from the Committee to whom the Bill for the Improve ment of the Highlands of Scotland had been referred. —The Report was ordered to be printed for the use of the Members. A Message from the Lords informed the House, that their Lordships would not insist on their Amendments in the Volunteer Bill. The Report of the Committee upon the Liskeard EleEtion Transatlions was ordered to he taken into farther consideration on TuPsddy next, and copies were ordered to be laid before the House, of two Letters relative to this suhjeet, the one from Mr. Damon, Under Sheriff of Cornwall, and the other from the Mayor of the Town of Liskeard to the _said Under Sheriff. Sir J. NewroßT moved for a List of the Persons holding Pensions on the Irish Establishment, to_ gether with the amount of the said Pensions, and the term for which they are held.—Ordered. On the Motion of Mr. Husxissolsr, the Order for taking into consideration His MAJESTY'S Message espeffing Provision for the Family of the late ' Lord KILWARDEN, was postponed till this day serinight. On the Motion of Mr. STURGES BOURNE, the third reading of the English Army of Reserve Sus. pension Bill, and the second reading of the Irish for the same purpose, was postponed till Mon day seinnight. _ SLAVE TRADE. Mr. WILBERFORCE rose to make his promised Motion : he said, that often as it had fallen to his lot to address the House on behalf of the unfortunate victims of this Trade, he never remembered a time when he had addressed them upon the subject, in which the necessity of the total Abolition of the Slave Trade could be more clearly demonstrated, or when the measure appeared more urgent, than at the present moment. His appeal would not now be made merely to the humanity or justice of the House, in favour of art oppressed and most unhappy race of individuals, but it should be also made to our own interests, and to every approved principle of Na. tional Policy; he was prepared to answer all the ar. guments that had been advanced against the measure which he had formerly the honour to introduce, and, he trusted, that he should convince the House that they had decided rightly in 1792, when they voted a Resolution for the gradual Abolition of the Slave Trade. In that Vote the House of Commons pro nounced a solemn verdiEt, and passed its judgment on the Slave Trade, after the most mature delibera tion. He lamented, however, that so long a time had passed since that vote, that it would become neces sary for him, upon the present occasion, to re-state those arguments and proofs upon which the House of Commons then solemnly decided. He hoped that it was not because the immutable principles of justice and humanity had made but a slight and transient im pression on the minds of those Gentlemen who had so voted, that the measure was not yet carried into execution, and that, after such a lapse of time, it became now necessary for him to urge vain those arguments of which the House of Commons, in 1792, expressed their approbation : (Mr. W. then re quested the Clerk to read from the Journals the Re. solution of the Ist of May, 1792 ; which was accord_ ingly done). This Resolution, he said, had for its primary objed, to save the lives of several hundred thousands of our fellow-creatures, and to save their offspring, for endless generations, from irredeemable and hopeless slavery and misery. In the evidence which was laid before Parliament prior to that Re solution, it had been clearly proved, that in order to support this Trade (if Trade it might be call ed), the Princes in Africa had been excited, not li! ea a bl e ne i g hb ours, only to ma k e War upon merely for the purpose of making Captives, but that they had also been excited to commit hosti lities against their own sulljeds, and those who had every right to claim their prote&ion ; they were 'excited not only by money, but Dy spirituous li quors, and every indoreeneot which could be sup. posed to have any operation on their minds. Their -mode of warfare, both with their neighbours and with their own subjefis, was to set fire to towns and villages, in order to catch the fugitives as they es_ taped from the flames, and sell the miserable cap. tives so taken to European purchasers ; and this prac tice was the principal support of the Slave Trade.— It had been proved that another mode of getting Slaves was this ; the Princes were excited to bring many of their -subjeds to trial on charges of magic, witchcraft, and other absurd charges of that nature : the sentence was banishment, and this banishment was changed to slavery in'our Colonies ; aondyet some persons gravely conten d e d, t h at persons taken to this manner, by open violence, or convicted in this manner, of witchcraft or magic, had really, and rightfully thereby forfeited their own liberty, and that of their offspring, to the remotest generation,aaid that they had no jusz reason to complain of West In dian slavery. 'Fite evils which this wicked traffic produced in Africa are very evident. The Distrift where the Trade prevails is unpeopied for nearly zOOO miles upon the Coast and boo in the Interior, extensive had been the mischiefs and the desolation eecasioned by it ; and whereas, in all other half- Vilized nations, the greatest degree of civilization ttis been always found on the Sea Coasts, when the ioliabitants Fad improved by intercourse with foreign nations, yet Africa alone was a melancholy, ex ception to this rule. Every thing like civilization, manufaaures, or learning, was only to be found in the interior, or in those countries which traded least with Europeans. The African Nations that were out of the way of European commerce, had some manufaaures, some agriculture, and knew some thing of the social comforts of life ; but those States in Africa which had the misfortune to be visited by European merchants, so far from improving at all in civilization, were the most remarked for adhering to every especies of barbarism. Those prejudices te speaing witchcraft and magic, which Christian mer .chants wished them to keep, had nearly disappeared before even the feeble lights of Mahometan civili zation. He thought that we would do well to be consistent in our wickedness, and to abjure even the name of Christians, while we were ailing a part so contrary to the spirit of Christianity ; a part which Mahometans or Pagans would blush to aO. It had been proved before the House, in 1792, that the Slave Trade had been carried on by the means he had stated, and that it hai produced in Africa that desolation which he had described ; it had also been proved, that by the manner of 1 treating the Slaves on their passage from Africa to the West Indies, many of them died, and the House was, at that rime, so struck with the proofs on this head, that Legislative Regulations were made, !Air ing the number of Slaves to be carried in each Ship. Against the evidence which was then produced, and against the arguments which the Howe had then acquiesced in, several objeaions were made at that time ; few of them substantial, most of them not even plausible. The first ground of ohjeaion was founded upon an opinion, that the Africans hardly deserved the name of men, but were rather to be con sidered assemi-brutes; the inference which was there fore drawn was, that we had no right to feel for them exally as fellow-men, and that they had no right to expel better treatment than they met with. This opinion was not merely hastily urged in the warmth of Debate, for want of a better argument, but had been deliberately stated by a man of consi derable abilities (Mr. Long), in a Work which he calls a History of Jamaica, and in Which he de scribes the whole African race as a set of beings very little superior to the Ourem °uterus-, of the baboon and monkey species. After expressly say ing that they were a set of brutes, he gives the fol lowing as the African charaaer : " The Africans are utterly incapable of any progress in civilization, they have no moral sentiment or feeling, which is exemplified in nothing more than their barbarity to their children : they cannot admire the beauties of their own Country, but bdild their hovels and their villages either in the forests or among morasses, and in situations the most difficult of access to Euro peans." How barbarous and unjust was the con clusion drawn by this Historian ? It they are obliged to fly from the most desirable situations in their own country, and hide themselves in forests and morasses from the eye of the European Slave merchant, or his African Agents, was this to be brought against them as a proof that they should be treated as brute, It was from no friendly visitors they fled, but from those who, with the most malignant industry, entered their country only to desolate it. The charge of barbarity to their children had been most completely disproved; it was a falsehood that had no foundation ; it was a libel on the Great Creator of the Universe, to say, that so considerable a portion of the Beings to whom he had given life, were deprived of that parental instins which brutes themselves possess in a high degree : but nothing could be more contary to the truth than this charge, as the Africans were known to possess the strongest attachment to their children. Ttie reasons of bringing such charges were obvious. If people can be once persuaded chat the Africans are merely brutes, they will be easily persuaded that they ought to be treated accordingly : but it should be recolleSed, that the Europeans do not visit ' Africa for the purpose of enlightening the darkness of the minds of the natives, or removing their pre judices, but merely for the purpose of dragging them away to the most bitter and endless slavery. This is an old way of justifying cruelty and oppres sion ; it is exally the same that the Spaniards took to justify themselves for their cruelty to the native Americans, on the conquest of Peru and Mexico; they would not allow them to be men, but a sort of brutes ; and in fad their barbarities, under that pre tence, received the first check from the Pope, who published an original Bull, for the express purpose of declaring that he acknowledged the Americans to he veros honthres, or real men. [Mr. WILBERFORCE here read a long Extras, in Latin, from the Pope's Bull upon that subject, in which his Holiness, after declaring that the Americans were usually considered bruta an alia, or brute animals, thereby expressly declared them to be real men.] —F ro i n Lr.. would appear, that this was an I; • • old way, whe n w e wisnC.P to ; :,lure and our fellow -creatures, to represent them as below the level of the human species. Besides the strong sympathy we feel for beings of our own species, there is this marked di.srindion : brutes have no foresight of future evil—no strong recol. letion of past injuries ; perhaps it would be well for the unhappy Africans that they too were destitute of those feelings, which could only aggravate their miseries, and embitter their slavery ; but it will hardly be argued at the present day, that they are so entirely destitute of feeling ; they have proved, in St. Djmingo, that they possess the power to combine with Wisdom, and execute with Courage; that they are not incapable of learn ing from the Europeans, at least the Art of War, and that they have learned how to make them- selves formidable to their oppressors. The argu ment which had therefore been drawn from the sup posed incapacity of the Blacks to receive any civi lization, was now completely overturned, by the events which had recently passed under our eyes. But, against the opinion of Mr. Long, (the Histo rian of Jamaica), the opinion of all Writers on Africa, both French and English, were unanimous (Mr.WIL BERFORCE then cited the accounts given by a great number of Writers, whose names he men tioned). They were all persons who had written on the State of Africa, long before the question of the Abolition of the Slave Trade had been started, and therefore could more be depended upon. They all agreed, that before the iotroduftion of the Slave Trade in Africa, that part of the coemtry in which it pow prevails, was much better cul:ivated and peopled than it is at present, and that the punish- I ments in Afric a were uncommoely : the greatest crimes were only punished by banish ment, which was usually of short duration ; whereas, since the introduCtion of the Slave Trade, the smallest crimes are punished nomi nally by banishment, but, by the intervention -9f our Slave Merchants, this banishment is changed to perpetual bondage and Slavery in rite West Indies. All those writers too even unanimously agreed, that what is called Slavery in Africa bears no resemblance at all to slavery in cur West India 'lslands. The Slaves in Africa eat with their masters, live nearly as well, and their labour was moderate; they did not work as our West-Indian Slaves, under the lash of a Task Master, or tied together in lines. A French Writer, Monsieur Malouin, had given a pretty exalt account of the manner in which the Slaves were pro cured for the French Merchants : he said, when Slaves • were wanted, a bargain was immediately entered into with some neighbouring Prince, who engaged to procure the number stipulated. If the Prince could not take so many from a neighbouring nation; he had but little objection to attack the towns of his 'Own subleas e Sometimes, however, the party that he sent out for the attack were repulsed, in which case he generally contrived to sell the un e successful assailants ; it seemed in such cases to be the maxim of the African Princes, as it had been said to be that of a Noble Lord sitting near him, to have two strings to his bow. (This unexpected sion to Lord CASTLE R EAG H produced a very general laughter). The same French Writer, however, stated, that when the Prince was tardy in executing his agreements, or hesitated to attack his own subjects, the French would themselves attack the towns and villages, and settle honourably with the Prince for the number of captives taken. The Frenchman, however, adds in a Note, that this is a praaice which he thinks ought not very often to be recurred to. All the old Writers, who had written before the Slave Trade was introduced, agreed in the mild ness of manners which formerly prevailed in Africa, and all who had written since the Slave Trade was introduced, were obliged to confesss that it was from prisoners" taken in the manner which had been • described, and those who had been convicted of ma gic and witch Craft, that Sieves were procured Lbleo. when the objection was still urged, that these we bought Slaves, were only such as were Slaves in their own country, and who therefore received no injury, he could not but observe, that it was shamee ful for those who ought to consider the sublet% to be still ignorant of the vast difference between West Indian Slavery. and African Slavery, or any thing that was ever known in the world by the name of Slavery, till the intreduaion of the West Indian Colonial System. Another objeftion was made of the same nature, but a still feebler one ; it was said, that all the captives which were drL ven to • the Coast would certainly be massacred if they were not sold.. If this argument was allowed to prevail at any one time, it must prevail for ever .against carrying into tired the Resolu tion of the House of Commons of 1792. Tliis objection, like the others, was direeily in the teeth of all experience, fur it was found, that whenever the native Princes and the Merchants had a misunderstanding, or difference about the price, those captives were retained in that mild system of slavery which always prevailed in Africa, and which should be rather called servitude than slavery. The Grumettas in Africa were a sort of Slaves, but more so nominally than in fan ; their task was to the full as light as any day labourers in Europe ; they did not work under the lash, they Were not torn from their Country and ail their dearest connexions ; they live in :he company of their masters, and almost on an equality with them, and, above all, they lived in their own country, and with men of the same colour. The hue and complexion of their native climate was not there'a degradation; it did not mark them out as an inferior race of beings, nor was it there .disputed whether or not they. were of the human species; whether they had the natural feelings of men. for their offspring, or whether their ; masters of the same colour were justified in consider ing them as a species of brutes. No African master was ever of the opinion of Mr. Long (the Historian of Jamaica.), that it would be no degradation for ; an African woman to accept an Ourang Outang for her husband.. In Africa it would be supposed that it was those Whites who'could assert such a •proposition,that wanted the common feelings of the human species. There was another objection taken, which it would appear profane to argue seriously,.ot seriously to re fute, namely, that because the word Slavery is men tioned in the Holy Scriptures, that therefore every cruelty which is practised over the African Slaves is justified by the word of God, and the dictates of Christianity. SUch were the principal objections made in 1792 to the Resolution which. was then passed by House of Commons, bet :le very cvi. deuce, which was then brought in favour of the Sieve Trade, as it then stood, was now the strongest presumptive evidence in favour of his argument. —There was one point which then made a pe— culiar impression on Parliament. It had been proved that, in consequence of the manner in which. the Slaves were crowded in the ships on their passage to the West Indies, nearly one half of the number taken no board absolutely perished the first year. This was a point that struck forcibly the humanity of the House, and they required the fullest evidence. The fad being proved, the advocates for the Slave Trade_ called forward a number of witnesses, who, upon being asked whether it was possible to carry on the Slave Trade to advantage if they were restricted • to taking only two Slaves for every ton the Vessel • contained I answered uanimeusly, that it was ab solutely impossibl e ; some h ar d y a d venturers m i g h t, as they thou g h t , still continue the trade ; but that, in their opinion, such a limitation would amount to the same thing as a total a . dition of the Slave Trade. Notwithstanding this opinion, so confidently delivered, Parliament laid even greater limitations, and would only allow five Sla yes to every three tons. What was the consequence I So far from its the T ra d e, the T rade was f ound to in. destroying crease very considerably after it, and the Merchants and Proprietors it, Jamaica agreed, that this Parlia. w enrary li m i tat i on was really beneficial to thei r i n terest. I n t hi s instance, therefore, it had turned ' that cvh°o out, and been most rnstailesily Ptcw ea ' , Parliament were f o ll ow i ng t he didates °fsss t l ies nity, they were, fact, following the ail of policy, and it was now acknowledged .ut"rioa sides, that those wh o h a d o pp3sed the "°li rests' 13 , e then laid on, had really mistaken their o wn ",,f trash This was certai n ly a ver y s t r ong argumen t ra c i ' dist that perhaps they might be mistaken again. 3n t i c e is it -might again b e f oun d• t h a t humanity - ands time, also the best policy. They also stated at t hat was of with equal coofilener, that the African Trade iaado' the utmost importance to the Marine of Eng_ fou r and that it was on e o f t he principal nurser ies u he Seamen. When he fir s t heard this asser tion , doubted it ; he could not believe this, when th o e olis mighty Disposer of the Universe had giv en I ".d e at Country the Ocean for its bulwark, and th e tri t he of the seas for its honourable distindion among ro d Nations, that thi s , it s b es t defence, and i ts P r o distindion, rested ill any degree upon a I° l ° ol Lion so polluted wi t h cr ime, as he had a considered this abomination which was ca lled ; 0, Slave Trade ; heowas anxious to examine the t P ro jt o p t os i i t t , io a n nd , I h ie e c t a b u u se nd h t e t m ex o c s e t e c d o i tn n evidence of th ose very persons who broug ht it e sti ward ; they had l a id upon the Table of the Hous Account of the n um b er o f sailors. employed intbs( African Trade, and by that Account it apPea red l; i 4 out of 12,1500 sailors, no less than 264 0 . ,' refuted bl ot , above one-fifth o f th e w hole number, die" , 1 "0-0 course of a year ; wh er e as , i n the trade to the e gpllyete d l o y ubted the t s ile Indies, a clim a t e c ons id ere d a s unwholesOf l c i;eds the same number of Sailors, only 389 h ern' which was but a thirteenth part of the now; evi- Ployed. Upon examination then of their ° r ea ,demos, it Seamenappearedcei,it o that what rather to be callstheycalledthe thattheir gevraenvetlwasnedw aho epspc:apreedd could not be readily or safely dfersottrnuta°iotinler evidence, any of His Majesty's Ships immediatsqjoast..... return from their voyage to the Sla ve he Tables When this printed Account was laid 00 ' I I ugh it he was determined to examine its a tt roose; was laid on the Table for a different P ° • P n etlt but 'having, from the reasons 6efoo a ssif oct s strongly suspected that the Marine was n° l , r a te benefited bye commerce, he paid particn' a hed noknentheointv.noYbio:lbaeriat tention t o_ t hi s Paper, and the obserVations hevego Made upon it .were .the necessary consequence. ors then it : was evident, th at m ost of the princip ale stea upon whiel - itie - friends o f the Slave Trade '.o. their s t rong-ess t - e -bj e Ct irons, complet-elyfall'el yeti They had taikc4if too of the immense capital in this trade ; but,: by their own .docturte rt r ail' were very Paper, it appeared that riot more r than lion annually `Ol British capital or inanuftiao re ro lot employed in this'nost wicked traffic. Ev e:l, l-00 then upon which the advocates of the Slave vo li a co rg n t i t i e ile had most firmly rested upon former occasions: l et . that tly the -failed Afri t c h a e n m s . weTrehey' would no . e l, of learning any thing, or rising to the level of O sso f man species; nor could they say that it was nl a rder i to stow throe or .four of them in every tot'. de W 39, Ib t i l ie l e e eitr i t sr o i f n wo c ul i in p d a m l that a slave-ship contained, nor that. this-W 1 hat' siuJt eY immutablem anity . and sound principles of them justice, that the House might perhaps s Pl l)° ; s h e also to be wrong in the new grounds whi c r ot would.be obliged. to take, after being.d tive : tlte, only by argument, but by experience, IT° e — o ehel' f f and strong positions in which they first in tr. ', Ole' itsotabee n support .vooi often w th s e oB their i t t) ts ri n lu g Nt l wAsy t ' le h i Y or . themselves, but which were found to be on tel a s 9 --A strong presumptive argument was n ° 0 •1 0 their way ; it would b e h a rdly possible - for th ce se° account, in any manner which' humanity ° I. f ie could listen to, why, in the West I n dies, t ' n et marl species decreases in such a d rea dful r n , an t ' ten Why have they been obliged, wi t hin the ' as p a t ed years, to import betw een two an d t hree "fob° thousand of Slaves ? I n ever y ot her Par t o ) world the human species increases, even 1 0 0? very. In the West Indies there are tw ° ls bjec`' fads, which throw a light upon this s e ' i : that it will be -beyond their power to cla rr eil°‘ the• Island of s Sr. Domingo, ever since th e b . ht lution, the number of bi rt h s h ave consider% "e has creased,' and the m orta li ty f rom t h e - cl uT)- e l j silro ; grown less ; h ow i s t hi s accounted f or ? Very -.aver'. tlse Women in St.DiSmingo are not forced t° ,; a ncY° or excessive hard l a b our during their P fe g oaf and, theref ore , n e i t h er so many others, nor 50 ; 9 0 04 children, di e now as use d lot merly to dier cs. ss/ do perish a nnua ll y -i n our I s l an d s. Besides e7 ; o due e : labour, there is another cause w hich has p x - e essiv" mortality in cur Colonies, namely, that t itt l e food' labour is add e d t h e ' crue l ty o f giving t °° t° st ate ' A 5 a decided pioof Of this, it w a s ;tiougt' i t 'peas' that the Assembly of Jamaica had thog h ; 14cr aes sary to vote as - an - allowance to ron-an, a ( I °3n confined in thei r j a il s , an d d o i ng n o w o ° ' a llowa n o , - ; tiny of equa l to d ou bl e ' c o eon that is giv en to work:ng Negroes some O. l tain e islands. It is now a punt periettly asc:erea by . speculative Politicians, and even we nt.° ma c anti ono Hume, the His t ori an , that it is cheaper , L • co economical, to keep up the stock of Slaves ' r o f oar' start importations, than to be at the ex.roc e o f tbC t ing them on the Colony. This, like ma n y e ns Slave Trade nussints, is derived from the sYs. f import cows from Denmark, and swine from e n th e managing brutes. It is said, that it is cil ea PG e cf. many, than to rear them England. th the proprietors of Slaves can but believe tha t and' k African race ought to be treated as brt ites• freso that it is mare to their interest to fo ment olei c Wars in Africa, for the purpose of keeping "P is r o ll stock, than to breed them in our Coloni es, li d if ir time for Legislative ss isdom to step in, Hu au sna - aitY cannot teach them better feelings of t heir and Religion, at least enlighten them as t ° c irca the .s 0 which this praflice would have upo n own interests. The next point way our P°l,FO.- latiun : 300,000 Blacks lid been added to Asseni t f l e 1,00 pulation Of the West Indies , and the of nil had made application far a great addition trap quilliiy, in a climate where- they 0 10 ‘ r va rice very rapidly, and he 3 a tish Troops for the purpose of preser v ' n g,,eris h 1""' - : of those. who chu,ed to con tone this were in the mean time to ftEnish fresh sull this to protal