The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1807-01-31 00:00:00

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...eats included 41 then, merit a misses
-.mar reply.
The first relates to the vast duties wbich come
into the Treasury from your produce. While kdo
not wish to lessee the valise of our West Indian
possessions, and while I am firmly of opinion, that
it will out be diminished by the proposed Bill, I am
obliged to remind you, that the people of England,
and not you, the Merelcints and Planters, pay these
duties ; and that they would continue to pay them,
if sugar, or other produce, similar so your own,
were to come from any other quarter of dm world.
The second relates to the Seamen, whom you
employ. You state them at 16,000 ; be it so—
We know then tile timber which the West India
Tiede annually raises. But how came your Gen-
tlemen, to conceal, that the Slave Trade destroys
between two and three thousand Se.imen aomsally ;
and therefore that whir... er you may gein by the
one, you lose by the other Trade.
In another part of your Petition, you seem to urge
the proximity of the island of St. Domingo to the
most important of the Vritisli Islands in the West
Indies, as an argement against the Abolition of the
Slave Trade. But surely you seem to have over-
looked how imperiously this proximity calls upon
you for its Abolition. In case of any sudden rup-
ture between St. Domingo and you, or between
St. Domingo and Great Britain, where would be
your safety, inclosed by a multitude of newly-import.
ed Slaves ? Would not these join the enemy on
their first landing ? Do they not consist of such in-
flammable matter, that there is need only to touch
it to make it blaze ? From whom does Mr. Long
say that your alarms have always arisen, but from
the imported Africans. Whereas, if your popula-
tion were to consist of Creoles, or native Negroes,
you might bid defiance to General Christephe, or to
any other person coming in a hostile capacity from
that quarter.
There is, Gentlemen, one part of your Petition,
which I cannot but notice, I mean, where you seem
to rest perfectly satisfied in your own innocence, or
in the idea that no delinquency has been proved
against you. That there has been delinquency some-
Where, and great delinquency, and such delinquency
25 history has never before recorded, is certain.
This delinquency has been shewn to exist in Africa,
by the evidence before both Houses of Parliament.
It has been sham to exist also in the West Indies,
by means of the same evidence, and still farther by
the Woody accounts lately handed to us by Lord
Seaforth. Now qui facet per deism, fads per se,"
is not only a maxim in morals, but acknowledged
both in the theory and the pray ice of the English law.
The last subjeft you touch upon is compensation
in case of the Abolition of the Slave Trade ; I shall
observe briefly upon this, as tar as relates to the
West Indies, that they, who have treated their Ne-
groes with kindness, will have no occasion fur it,
and that they, who have treated them otherwise, do
not deserve it. I do not, however, mean to say, that
there may not be cases, a here the Legislature may
hold it justifiable to grant a compensation. With
respell to those, however, who are concerned in the
Mimeo part of the system, it would be a violation
both of morals, and of all the principles ofjurispru-
dence, to allow it. I have heard, that in some corm-
tries, they, who stole others as goods and chattels,
were punished with death. I have heard, that in
others the receivers of stolen goods were punished,
as well as the thieves themselves. But I never yet
heard, that men in any country had a compensation
for abstaining from iniquity, or that they were to be
indemnified from sufferings, which might arise out
of a violation of aU religion, provided they would
abandon the crimes which occasioned them.
A Barren.

tho

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

PLYMMITIII, JAN. 28.
Sailed His Majesty's ship Mars, 74 guns, Capt.
Lukin ; Fiera frigate, Xpliette cutter, with dispatches;
aad Calm: brig, Cheerly, and Lady Warren ; Lord
heifetsat, Sewed F,eendshije, Louisa and
Cecilia tenders.
1•LMOUTII.J•81. 27.
Sailed the P►iaress Charlotte packet, Capt. Kerr,
with mails for the Leeward Islands.—Wind E.