The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1804-05-31 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

General Tiiiii:EPoN 1);e ....... Petition from
certain Proprietors of Fisheries on the North Western
coast of England, against the Solway Fishery Re-
gulation Bill, and praying to be heard by Counsel
against the same. Leave was given that the Peti-
tioners be heard by their Colima.
A Message from the Lards informed the House,
that the Lords had considered the reasons given by
the Commons for disagreeing to certain amend-
ments which their Lordships had made in the Vo-
lunteer Bill, and that the Lords had agreed not to
insist upon the same.
On the motion of Sir Jou* NEwrour, an order
was made for printing certain Irish accounts, that
had been laid before the House.
Siriolol NEWPORT gave notice that to-morrow
he should move for an account of the disbursement
of 4,0001. voted last Session, as a compensation to
certain officers in Ireland.

The Southwark Paving Bill was read a second
time, and referred to a Seleft Committee.
The Westminster Court House Bill was read a
third time and passed.
On the motion of Mr. Sruaotss Bouawl,
the orders of the day for the third reading of the
English, and the second reading of the Irish Army
of Reserve Suspension Bills, were postponed till
Monday se'nnight.
The Irish Annual Accounts Bill went throngli a
Committee, and was ordered to be reported tei-
morrmv.
The Offenders' Arrest Bill was reported; and or-
dered to be read a third time to-morrow. _

The second reading of the Yorkshire Woollen
Cloth Regulation Bill was postponed to Wednes,lay.
The consideration of the Report of the Committee
on the Liskeard Bice/ion Return was put off till
Tuesday ; and, on the Motion of Mr. BA NEE the
copies of two letters, taken down in the Minute, be-
fore the Committer, were ordered to be Lid before
the House.
Sir JOHN Nrwroar moved, that there be laid
b4ore the Honse a list of all Pensions now payable
on the establishment of Irelmd, up to January,
1804—specifying the dates and the continuance of
the same. Ordered.
consideration of the King's Message, rel.ttive
to the family of the late Lord Kilwarden, was put off
till this day se'nnight.
The second reading of the Attornerfilbriemitity
Bill, and the Committees of Supply and Ways and
Means, were put off till Friday.
SLAVT: TRADE.

Mr. WILBERFORCE rose to bring forward the
Motion of which he had given notice. He said it
had often been his lot to address the House on the
subject of the Slave Trade, and on the necessity of
its abolition : but, unfortunately for the cause of
justice and humanity, he had not been able
to succeed in attaining the ebjen be bad in
view. Whatever , conviaion might have former-
ly rested in his mind on this subjel, he must say,
that he never had a greater sense of its importance
at any period than at the present moment ; because
there was no period when the state of the West In-
dies was so critical ; and perhaps a single opportu-
nity was now offered of bringing the question to
an issue, which might not be incompatible with the
prosperity of our colonies ; and the trade might be
put an end to altogether. Although the subjea of
the Slave Trade has formerly occupied so much
el the time and attention of that House, that
one would suppose the arguments for its abo-
lition were still fresh in Gentlemen's minds;
yet, unfortunately for the cause of humanity, these
impressions were so old, that he much feared a great
deal of information had passed away, and vanished
from the minds of Gentlemen. He would therefore
trespass on the time of the House, by'stating some,
of those points that had been alluded to so often be-
fore. If, however, other arguments wer; wanting.
he might appeal to the ream tied sense of Parliament
on this subjea : he might put the House in mind of
its own A:I, by which it would appear, that, after
the most minnt: discussion and inquiry, it had given
a verdiO, and IlronounCed a sentence against the
Slave Trade. He therefore appealed to the decision
which that House had cease to in 179 e. and which,,
on mature examination and consideration, conveyed,
its sense of the trade against all the former impress
made upon it. (Here the clerk, on the motion
of Mr. W. read the Resolutions agreed to by a Com-
mittee of the whole House, on the Ist of May, 1792.
by which the House declared it as its opinion, .4 that
the Slave Trade ought to be gradually abolished ;
and drat, after a period of our ;gars from that
time, it should not be lawful to carry slaves away
from the coast of Africa :6) He then observed, that
the House appeared wilitlgr at that time, not only to
abolish the trade, after the expiration of four years,
but to adopt measures in the inter mediate space, to
prevent any very great accession of negroes into the
West Indies. He would now state the grounds on
which that Resolution h.td been taken by the House;
and he begged and entreated of Gentlemen to con-
sider that t7te happiness of hundreds of thousands of
their fellow-crtatotes w.i> at issue' upon this great
question. It on a former occasion had been clearly
proved, that the Slave Trade had been produced
and carried on upon the coast of Africa, by the
most unjust and cruel praftices that could be con-
ceived; that slaves were obtained, by inviting one
nation of Africans to attack another. in order that
the captives taken in war might be sold; that at the
instigation of Europeans, who went to the coast,
whore villages used to be sett fire, in order that
11 the inhabitants might be routed away, that the fu-
irtives might be caught; every roan was armed.

against his neighbour; no African considered him-
self .?.
secure, unless he was armed ; every thing was '
horror and devastation; And yet, by a strange per-
versien of language, this was called a trade! Even
the administration of justice, on the coast of Africa.
was made subservient to the practice of procuring
slaves. Individuals were u ied for the vague and un-
defined crime of witchcraft ; there was hardly any of.
fence of Athich they were more likely to be conviekd ;
and all the persons trying them had an interest in
their condemnation; the con v idell,,, ersons were sold
as slaves, and the Judges received," share of the mo-
ney paid for them. This was the sort of j'istice.
which the natives of a country, who boasted of their
1 excellent administration of jurisprudence, carried to
the coast or Africa. So great and aggravated were
the evils :rrisiag from this horrible traffic, that , they ,
reversed the very order of nature, and inverted all
those principles on which society had ever been
' known to ad. It WAS well known, that in every
• country tke state of society was much more im.
proved near the sea-coast, than in the interior—but
in Africa, it was quite die reverse. In every part
of that coast, where any intercounre had been car.
Tied on with the English, there was nothing to be
seen but a desolated country, and a barbarrine
and savage people. But in the interior there were
large towns, there was industry ; the perrsle were em-
ployed in the pursuits of agriculture and rouinutac- ,
tures. These fads might be clearly proved front '
several writers. Even the native and barbarous so- ,i
perttition in religion, which, in sonic parrs of titer ' 1
interior, Alahornetanisin tended in some mull daf's
gree to cornea, existed in its fullest and worst degree
on the coast ; and that, in the very face of the,'
Christianity, which the traders, who came .to pure • ;
chase slaves, affected to profess. This, he cont end.
ed, was a disgrace to any civilised nation. The st_ste-
ments he now made were laid before the Hoses, at i
the time of passing the resolution in 1792, and brbat '
'resolution they were acquiesced in. kiln the de in. •
',Winn and barbarism he alluded to, were nor. con-
fined to a small distria, they extended in sante
places 300 miles into the interior, which was as i. r
'as the wickedness of man could carry them t mkt
an extent of coast about 600 miles in length wee
wasted and desolated by us. The whole of this trader
was one uniform scene of cruelty and wictednest.
The evil did not alone consist in the miseries hitlieted •
on the coast, in carrying slaves across the Atlantic ;
the evils were much greater ; and the abominations
pranised were swish as to excite the deepest iodi-
nation and astonishment. Theo, after they were
landed in the Welt Indies, they had the drisadfoll • '
mortification to see themselves doomed, they and . '
t'leir posterity, for ever, to slavery. On former
occasions, some plausible obis:Woes bad beesvairged._
against or abolitioata4 this trader bet tier were
very far from being satisfAdory. With regard to •
the trade on the, coast of Ali ica. it had been se' I.
that it was a sort of kindness to the negroes, to take
any notice of them at all. It was curious to observe
the manner in which one person spoke concerning
this subject, in a thing called a history. Me. Lcings,
the historian of Jamaica, daseribed the negro= as
being very few degrees removed from homes; as.
coming next to the ocrang-outangs ; that their bar-
barism to their children placed them, in point of
feeling, before the condition of brutes; that the
African negroes could make no progress in civilian- i
tion ; that they had no moral sensation ; that their i
country WAS a mere wilderness, without any cultiva-
tion, arid filled with briars and thorns; that a
general uniformity ran through all of them ; and
that they were a brutal, crafty, bloodthirsty, •
and superstitious people, itc. Sac. Such were the
extraordinary statements of a man, who cer-
t.siniy
possessed learning and talents; and wirer- r
did not write them in a hasty manner, but in art 'f
grave work, which he called a history. If the wool
happy natives of Africa, however, should be Intuit' '
to possess social feelings; that they had antieepratimis -
of future evils, and aSed and thought like men of a
different colour, he would ask. what credit (nrfeht I
this Historian to have for his statements ? Anne t:le '
First Consul of France, tram whom mob a thing '
might least be caper:Led. had done them mom juts- '
lice, for be had publicly admitted that they posseaa-•'
ed many amiable qualities. That their country
Was a wilderness, could not be imputed ad a.faalt to
diem. For, ever :lace the Slave l'rade had beers
carriesi on among them, it was their enema, satire
and Ca their habitations in the most remote parts of
the forests, where they endeavoured to bury them-
selves from the reach of civilised F.umpeirns. It
was no light matter for a man to libel the creation
of the Almighty, in the manner this Historian had '
done ; and, so far from wishing to reclaim thorn, to
appear desirous of continuing the b:urbarism and
darkness in which they were immersed. The eery
same things had formerly been said be the Spa- •I 1
•ii:ads of the Americans, inijuswication of the cru-
elties they pradised ainst them. Ilse Spanish
writers of that tizn7 ' the native Americans were
not men but brutes r t t they nothing better
me
is... re
than large apes, us Lich iniglit be murdered at any
time, without :emit se or hesitr loch Some persons,
however, interfered, to save the Americans from
persecution and degradation. The Pope, being de-
sirous of founding Bishoprics in the Spanish male.
meats of America, made a Bull, bearings4l.ne in
the year 1387, in which he expressed it as kis will,
that the Americans should be considered as true ors
(remys &mien). This circumstance would be stilE-
cient to shay', that attempts had beam made to re.
present the Americans as not entitled to the rights of
the human species. Happy, indeed. had it been for
them, as well as for the natives of Africa, if, like
brutes, they were divested of the power of knowing
and feeling their misery, and the evils that had
been inffiaed upon them. Those persons, who were
in the habit of calumniating the wretched natives of
Africa, bad reason to -know and to believe,
that they were something like men ; that they were
capable of forming plans and of carrying on enter-
prises with vigour I and that they often were very
paw:lW. Accounts of Africa had oee:r j• 4 '.. I ski ...41111