The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1805-03-01 00:00:00

•
sea to remain under his present misapprehension.
By the rules of their proceedings, he could mash*
regularly authorised to reply to any arguments ad-
. 4• vanced against a Bill, in any stage of its progress,
as that was merely an indulgence usually given only
to those who originated any new measure.
The question was then called for, and strangers
ordered to withdraw, preparatory to a division—
when
General GASCOIGNE rose-14e could not, he
said, expea, that any thing he might offer, could
threw any material new light upon this subjea—or
that he had the power to detain the tention of the
House, by any novelty of illustration ; hut he
at very inconsistently with his avowed senti-
ments, if he did not oppose the Bill in every stage
of its progress. Ile was very well aware o. what
indeed every one knew, that a bill to the same area
had passed that House, in the course of the last
Seisions--but he was far from thinking that policy,
humanity, or justice, at this time, bound them to
that measure—especially when they considered the
present circumstances of the country, and how im-
portant th.. West-India Trade was to the public re-
venue. litre were two go. ants of view in v liich
the measure may be considered-Ist, in regard to
its wisdom and policy; and, 2dly, with respea to
its expediency at the present moment. The sup•
porters of the Bill had not now, after so many reme-
dies had been already applied, anything to addon the
score of the inhumanity of the trade; the cruelty
of the middle-passage; or the hard usage said to be
experienced by the negroes in the plantations. All
these, and even the possibility of their recurrence,
were totally removed, by the regulations already
adopted. There were no temporary existing cir-
cumstances, which could now call upon them to
rote for it. On the contrary, he could say, from
his own knowledge, that there were several Ame-
rican Houses now lying by, and ready to take up
the trade on a larger scale, as soon as we should re-
linquish it. Much more was meant by this plan
than had yet been avowed, and he was convinced
that the framers of the abolition meant it ulti-
mately to terminate in the total emancipation of the
toc •negroes.At this time at least, it was the interest of the
planters to keep their slaves as healthy and in asgocd
condition as they could, because without them there
was not by any means a sufficient poi:A.l6°n in the
colonies to keep up the plantations. After experi-
*ming the benefits derived from this trade, for more
than a century, the House should not now yield to
vague and speculative ideas; aad particalarl7
when the nation was involved in an extensive war,
which would be sufficient to employ the whole of
its resources. and when, in consequence of it, the co-
lonies already felt themselves under considerable
embarrassment. These spaulative opinions had al-
ready beet ammoded with very mischievous effeds,
and the frequent discussion of them excited such a
spirit of insurmaion in the islands, that, only for a
providential discovery, the plot lately projeded Ivy
the slaves, might have involved the colonists in the
same miserable fate which befel the white inhabi-
tants of a neighbouringeolony (St. Domingo ),whose
proximity to our settlements rendered the danger more
imminent than it might otherwise be. If Gentlemen
represented the trade to be inhuman, he would ask,
was it not equally, or even more cruel, to sutojed
the white inhabitants to a general massacre ? The
Government had lately adopted the measure of pur-
etviaase from the philters 5,000 able bodied negroes,
of 21 to 25 years of age, for a military force. In
that, he believed, they did right ; but was the mo-
ment they were buying slaves themselves the pro-
s: for prohibiting the planters from purchasing
? Those even who admired the principle of
the Bill must rejet it in praaiee, when they under-
stood that, independently of the loss to the revenue,
by the abolition of the Slave Trade. they would
throw 760,0,00 persons out of employment. It a
Committee was now appointed for investigating the
state of this trade, and the condition of the colonies,
he made no doubt bat the result would be very dif-
ferent from what it was before; for, unfortunately,
the negroes of our islands had, at this time, a great-
er facility than before, of communicating both
with France and the Black Empire of Hayti.
There were also a greatnumber of black sailors in
our navy, whom these discussions might Annulate
to revolt and mutiny. Upon these grounds he
moved that the Bill be read a second time this day
six moaths.
Sir CHARLES BROOKE thought, that if the
abolition was generally agreed to amongst other
nations, the English colonies might not suffer from
it very materially ; hut that was not to he expeaed
either on the part of France or Spain ; particularly
the former, as, by the former precipitate measure of
abolition, she had lost the most valuable of her
colonies and her army. After the peace, or rather
the truce. of Amiens, France gave a bounty of two
pounds, &kith money, on the importation of slaves
irom Attica; and British subjects, by selling the
rights of citizenship in that country, might there be
enabled to carry on a traffic whicl) would, by this
Bill, be bete prohibited. The Spanish colony of
Cuba, by leaving the importation of slaves open to
the ships of every native. was now nourishing ; and,
upon the ss hole, he should oppose the Bill, from a
conviaion that, if we relinquished. the trade, it would
be taken up by France, Spain, and many other
nations.

44

Sir W. YOUNG thought that some respell ought
to be paid to the opinions of the Colonial Assem-
blies of the West India 'show, who deprecated
this measure, and who must be allowed, from their
experience and local knowledge, to be better judges
of their own interests, than we could be. Though
the Hon. Gentleman ( Mr. Wilberforce) thought
proper to be silent, he might have expelled, on the
present night, a formidable opposition—for, on
former occasions, there were never 250 Members
percent, when similar measures were adopted ; and
there yet remained 400 mote, who, no doubt, would
consider, that, though this country may herself re-
linquish the trade, it was not in its power to abolish
it. The Hon. Gentleman then quoted several pas.
sages from the works of Mr. Mungo Park, to
spew that there was an ambitious Mahometan Power
spread along the coasts of Africa, which, by its wars
and conquests, kept the interior of that country, as
far as it was known, in a constant state of warfare ;
that the custom was to massacre the prisoners, when
they could not sell them ; that there was scarcely
any man free amongst the natives of that Contineht ;
as An instance of which, he stated, that out of 900
prisoners takes there atter a battle wuo by ow of