The Sun.
London, England, 1814-06-28 00:00:00

, .. ~
, Thionanarte, WAS tnileli tAlkea of., atul it 'WO adz
. anted as an instance that the French people in
general did not know that the Slave Trade hail
been abolished' by Great Britain: 'The 14oble
Lord .might as Well have talked of. the people in
the wilds of Ritssia not Jiaving 'heard of this.
What had.the majorityof the population of I-trance
to 06 with the Slave Trade, which excited no in-
terest but in some. of the trading towns ? Bitt did
the Noble Lord anticipate any new channel of
information to the people of Fiance? Was it not
known that the press in that, country would be
F
' . kept as much muter the controul of the Govern-
meta- ,as' had, been in the most despotic times ?
Indeed, for his own part, he had no hopes that
,•tlie Slave Trade would be abolished in France
at •the end of five years. Did the Noble LOrd
mean to •have them believe that Austria, Rus-
sia, .and. Pritssia would all have armed to pre-
vent that abolition vliieli, it'was now_said,..they
Were ail so • anxious to procure ? (He'ar, hear !).
—The-honourahle Gentleman then went on to
reprobate What bait been done by the Sicannish and
Portuguese Govei mnents With 1 espect to‘the,Slave
Trade. Instead "of abolis!.ing it :it once, they had
allowed it to be carried oil tor an indefinite pe-
riod, contenting themselves with some 'futile
enactments to mitigate the dreadful cruelties inse-
,parable nom the trade in any
,shade." .He justi-
fied Mu. Fox for nut insisting. on' the abolitl6n
I during his negotiations with. Buonaparte in
ISIA, on the plea-that the opportunities aft a-0-
ell to him at that tune were infinitely less than.
thosF'in the po-.‘'er of the Noble Lord, with 1.4:-
sp.-et to the relative situations of the two- cotin-.
tries. It was to be reniembered too, that it.'was
before the abolition of the Slave 'friule by Greit.t
Britain that tficse iiegociatimus took place. Ile
maintained, however, that no manwas ever mere
Eincei'e on any subject, than Mr. Fox was' in his'
efforts to nrocnre the Abolition of the Slave Trade;
•c •
and he was sure that he (Mt' Fox) would sooner
have parted with ins hand''than have signed 'a
'Treaty containing such an article as that In our
present Treaty with France which regarded this
' trade.. He would not disturb the unanimity
'of the House by voting.,ag,ainst the Motion.
Lord CASTLEREAMR, explained respecting the
conduct of, Mr. Fox during the-megociation in
18'36 ; the principle on whiclv that Statesman had
negociated was the distinct separation of the ques-
tion of the Slave Trade front the question .of
' neral Peace." .Alchongh the' Skye 'Trade had'not
been finally abolished at the time that the nego-
,,ciationsof Mr. Vex had taken place, yet the
solution by which that trade had been abolished,
had beenpassed. '
Mr. Baruuesr denied that the principle of the
Address in May last conferred any power -on our
Negociators to dictate:terms' to any' Power. By
that AddresS,At wavonly required that influence"
should be excited to procure the Abolition of'the
Slave Trade.' As''to ceding the Colonies only on
condition of havitig'this trade abolished, he could
not but'think all 'that his Noble Friend had said
on this subject was perfectly conclusive on
this point, unless it was contended that we
.ought to have dictated ' Peace --on terms• de-
grt-t,ding to' France.
,For-it certainly woultl-haVe
been degrading to -have restored Colonies with
'a condition on which they were restored. It
it was asked 'what had been obtained tor the
limited continuance of-this -trade, lie* would-an-
swer.;- that the ' general peace of Europe had
been got:by it. Indeed, unless the Hon—Gen-
tletnan oppositewere prepared to say that the abO,,
Eliot' of this trade should have been- a shie- qua n'on,
and more than this, that• we should have gotiCto
war to procure this abolition,. he could not see
how their arguments could hold.' It-had been most
unwarrantably said, that instead of any thin'g
havingii,eett obtained by the country, that this
country had conceded a great deal to Ft auce; by
allowing the. trade to be carried or ; whereas the '
matter of fact was, that a very great-concessFan
diad'heen obtained from- France by her promising.
to cause the trade tpbe.given ..p•at the end of a
lianted perioda concession on which this coun-
try had no right to insist. ' :
Mr. WYNNE replied shortly to. the Right llon.
Gentleman who spoke last.
Mr. CANNING conceived that the nature of the
Article would be better discussed when they came
to.consider the whole Treaty. In the mean time,.
it was evident, that the only good that'was to re-
sult from the Article concerting; the. Slave Trade,
was in proportion to the inclination of the French
GoVernment. He was prepared to vote for the
originitl Addre4s ; and he saw no objection to the
Amendment. The object
,was to infuse strength'
to his MAjesty's Go'vernment, which inight'be em-
ployed by them at the ensuing Congress'; but
'whateVer might be the force of the'original Ad-
dress,.'it was not such;aslo allow it to-spare thuds
Lis-to its efticacy. ' lie suggested, for the sake of
unanimity, chat the Amendment shOuld be with-
drawn. ,

Mr. WILBERFORCE said a few words in faVour
of . the Amendinent, the substance of which he
wound have been happy to have introduced into
his Address. But, as it was, he now recOnnend-
ed that, for the sake of unanimity, •it should be
withdrawn. "