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

SLAPS Tit4l7l.
. ,
VO TAIL WESTINDIA PLANTERS AND
MERCHANTS.
dirruridni. T London, Jas. U.

Harbin read yesterday the Petition which you
presented to the House of Lords, I take the liberty
of making the following remarks upon it.
In the first place, you support those which you
consider to be your rights, on certain Charters or
Ads, which, you say, have sandioned the Slave Trade.
I apprehend you are aware that the first public Ad
in your favour, and which was the great ground-
wot k of all others, appeared in the reign of Eliza•
beth, who granted letters patent for carrying on the
trade from the River Senegal to an hundred leagues
beyond Sierra Leone. You have, perhaps, forgot-
ten the religious suspicion which this Princess en-
tertained relative to the lawfulness of it, when it
was begun. It is well known that she sent for Sir
John Hawkins, after his voyage to Africa and His -
ipaniola, and that she expressed her concern to him
lest any of the Africans should be carried off with-
out their free consent, declaring, that " world be
detestable, aid call dew,, the otageonee of Heaven ups
the wettertoking." Now, Gentlemen, as the leans
patent in question were granted by this Princess,
soon after these remarkable expressions, what is the
inference, but that, in sanctioning the trade, she was
kept purposely ignorant of the cruel circumstances
belonging to it ? This was also the case with Louis
the Thirteenth of France, who set his face against
the introduction of it, till he was assured that the
Africans were savages at home, and that, by being
carried into the European colonies, they would en-
joy the blessings of the Christian religion.
And as this was the cue both with Elizabeth and
Lpuis, so it we, the case with all others of our own
Princes. under whose reigns any Ads have been
tw de in your favour. I mean to say, that the
Ithaiiibers of the different Legislatures which made
eLern, were ignorant of the violent, cruel, and
treacherous manner in which the unhappy Africans
wet,- reduced to slavery, or they would Dever have
given them their support. What British Prince or
Parham nt would nave igiven your agents leave to
Drake Africa a scene of blood and desolation? or
what Prince or Parliament, knowing the horrors of
the trade, as it now exists, would new suffer it to be
begin? It appears to me that two things are al-
way 'mp'.ieti in every Legislative Act ; first, per.
mission to do certain actions ; and, secondly, a con-
dition,
that the actions thus permitted are not to be
contrary to the laws of justice and religion. Now.l
it you fail in performing the condition, I apprehend
you fr.rfeit your claim to the permission, and that
you can no longer look up to the Legislature for its
support.
But it is, I believe, on the preamble of the Act
of the 23d of George she Second, on which you so
much depend, " That whereas the Trade to and
from Africa is very advantageous to Great Britain,
and necessary for the supplying of the plantations
and colonies thereunto belonging, with a sufficient
number of Negroes at reasonable rates." therefore it
is desirable it should be carried on. But what did
that enlightened statesman, Mr. Pitt, say, when he
read this preamble in the House of Commons, on
the 2d of April, 1792 ? " Here, then, we see,"
said Mr. Pitt, reading the preamble aloud, " what
Parliament had in view, when it passed this All,
and I have clearly 'hewn, that not one of the occa-
sions, on which it grounded its proceedings, now
exists. I may then plead, I think, the very want.
ble itself as an argument for the Abolition. If it
has been thews that this trade, instead of being
very advantageous to Great Bike* is the most de-
strudive that can well be imagined to her interests
—that it is the ruin of our seamen—that it stops the
extension of our manufactures:—!f it has been
proved, in the second place, that it is sot now ne-
cessary for the supplying of our plantations with
Negroes. If it ha: been farther established, that this
trek was front the very beginning contrary to the
first principles of justice, and consequently that a
pledge for its continuance, if such a pledge had
ever been given, must have been completely and
absolutely void—where then in this Ad of Parlia-
ment is the contrad to be found, by which Britain
is bound, as she is said to be, never to listen to her
own true interests, and to the cries of the natives of
Africa ? is it not clear that all argument, founded
on the supposed pledge of Parliament, makes against
those who employ it ?"
I come now to the next statement in your Petition.
You are pleased to say, that the cultivation of the
colonies cannot be carried on without supplies of
African labourers, front which you deduce many
alarming consequences, such as the loss of your own
property, the loss of an immense duty to the revenue,
the loss of the exportation of- a vast quantity of our
manufaaures, the loss of the employment of 16000
seamen, &c. Now what can have induced you to
lay such a frightful pidure before the /louse of
Lords? You know as well as I do, that there are a
great number of plantations in the different West
India Islands, which, much to the honour of those
who have had the management of them, have never
bought an African Negro for to, Se, 40, 50, and
even 60 years, and some of which have doubled
their population by birth. It is clear, then, that no
supplies of Aft ican labourers are wanted for these,
and of course, that none of the alarming conse-
quences, which you have painted to this branch of
the legislatnre, will follow there. And why might not
other plantations do the same ? You know that the
managers of these might breed and rear almost as
many Negroes as they pleased, if they did not set
their faces against it. And what other effed will
the stopping of supplies from Africa (which is the
only thing intended by the Bill) have, but that et
obliging all such bad managers to change their
system, that is, to treat their Negroes more kindly
than they have hitherto done, and to put them upon
the same footing as those upon the estates which
have no occasion for foreign labourers. And here
it may not be impertinent to remark, that an im-
provement in year fortunes would be more likely to
follow, than the poverty you raped. For which are
the embarrassed estates in the West Indies, according
to your favourite author, Mr. Long, but such as
where the managers of them prefer the purchasing
of nem Negroes, tithe acquisition of them by a wise
increase from the births.

I should have made no further remarks upon the
dreadful consequences you anticipate, Lot that two