Star.
London, England, 1807-02-06 00:00:00

their pretipiiation t ana if the ptdent tsiiniftert ea.
tinned to 'cog in office, he entertained no doubt that
in three or four years they would retrace their Rep%
and apply to Parliament that the trade might be
again refumed. But, be the event what it might ja
other refpeets, to his mind it was pettedly clear, that
without this trade the Weft Indies muft be loa to
Britain ; and without the Well Indies, not only the
dignity and praperil of the nation was gone, but
its very exidence as an incl.:pendent empire.
The Duke of GLOUCESTER perfeftly coincid-
ed with a Noble Lord near him (Lord Grenville)
art the injuttice and impolicy of the African trade.....
He was ready to meet the queflion en either ground,
whether the ohjeClions were to be founded on the in.
humanity or on the inexpediency of this commerce,
as it affected the mercantile interetts of the country,
The (objets however, had been fa fully ditcuffed rat
the firli Addrefs that evening, and their Lnrd(hipd
had enjoyed fo many oppoitimi,ies of previous in.
quiry, that it wonld be needlefs ,for him to detain
them long with fuch oblervations as occurred to hi!
mind. It was evident that the population had 11„,t
greatly obflrutted by feverity ; the Maroons, it
was well known, doubled their numbers io a period
of about thirty-three years ; and there was no reafri
to cupric that the fame increafe would not lake
place with the fl tees, if it were not obltroded by ar.
tificial caufes. As an irdlance of the inhumatity with
which the negroes were treated, and of the light value
t tat was fet upon their lives whet-, they were not the*
aßually ufeful to the owner, his Royal Higlisei
mentitmej the cafe of a poor black woman that had
been fold to a Captain of a fhip; the Captain did not
dircfiver until after he had bought her, that the had a
young eild, who then fuckled at her breaft ; tipoa
this he remonfl rated with the man with whom he had
made the bargain, upon the unfa'rnefs of his dealing,
as be ohferved that a woman with a fucking child
cr uld not do fo much work, and conferment!), was net
worth ft much money as if the had not the child ta
fockle. The unfeeling, barbarous (lave merchant then
Lid, " Oh, I will loon fettle that point," tore the
child from its mother's arms, and, throwing it into
the fea, received the rm:ney Fr which he had bar.
gained. Much had been Paid by the Learned
Counfel, on the Irffes their clients would fuffer from
the inapplicability of the flare (hips to other trades.
Thus much was correely flared, hut they did not
tell their Lortlfhips that there veffels might be molt
advantageoufly applied as tranfports : indeed, no
(hips whatever were fo well adapted to fuch a put-
pole. But it was not neceffary to difcilfs tittle mi.
nute items of profit and lots •; it. was evident that the
commerce was oppofed to every found maxim ofjuf-
rice and humanity, and therefore it ought to be abo.
lifhed ; it was a claim not only nn the clemency,but
on the honour and integrity of their Lordfhips, and
he trulled loch a demand would not go unfatisfied.
L-rd MOR fON Paid a few words- in oppofitionto
the Bill.

• The Earl of WESTMORELAND cArnmeseed
his vindication of the Slave Trade by Rating, that it
had been fanltioned in the earließ ages by that fs.-
voured nation which had been fpecially cholen by
the ALMIGHTY, and that there was not a word inthe
New Tertament which forbade ir. Although oar
religion was fluent upon the fubjeet, yet a new doc-
trine had lately been difcovered, and it was found out
that flavery ought to be entirely abolithed. The
Noble Lord, indeed, had conferred that Rarely had
exilted from the earließ times, but maintained that it
was formerly much milder than it is at prefent. He
however mull maintain the contrary political. He
fhould not examine the annals of the moll barbarous
nations, nor the times when the poets faid that flares
were devoured, but he would recur to the Roman
Hiliory, which often makes mention of Haves being
expofed to wild beaßs at the amphitheatre, and to the
Grecian Hillery, which made mention of the treat.
ment of the Helots. It was not until the reign cif
the Emperor Adrian that the murder of a Hare was
punithable. At relent there were fuch provifioss
for the proteetion and maintenance of our Haves in
the Welt Indies as furmer ages had not. If the great
Difpofer of Events had confulted Democrats or Ja-
cobins at the creation, perhaps flavery would not
have exifled ; but as he bad no fuch counfellors, it
pleafed him to ordain that flavery fhould exiii in Afri•
ca, and as it has called there fince the earliell time,
we had no right to find fault with, or oppofe the dd.
penfations of PKI)IIIInNCE. Wh:aever might be tke
proferEons of thofe who brought forward the area-
lure, he confidered the tendency of it as very dan-
gerous ; and he could not avoid recollefting, that the
attempt of the Sierra Leone Company, begun from
motives of humanity, produced all chafe evils which
it preferred to remedy. When Minifters propofed to
Bonaparte to abolifh the Slave Trade in France, he
replied, that he mull firß confider how Inch a ReP
would affe,ft the interefis of his colonies. It was to be
hoped that the Houle Would have the fame confide-
ration for the Britith col. nies. We could not prorate
France, Spain, Portugal, and America from taking
up the trade, neither could we prevent the Emperor
of Morocco, or the African Pt ince% from continuist
it. He then touched on the great importance of the
Weft Indies, as taking off one third of our exports,
employing from fixteen to twenty thoufand femora,
and yielding four or five millions annually to the re•
venue. He confidered it quite impoffible that the
population in the Hinds could maintain itfelf, sant
the proportion of women to men was'only as 2 to
He confidered the next topic of popular declamation
would be the property of the Clergy, and he conceiv-
ed that every perfon porreffed of property was bola
to oppofe the meafure.
Lord SELKIRK raid, that if, becaufe flaverycl•
irked, it was therefore to be called a difpeofation of
PROVIDENCE, which mull be lubmitted to, upon OP
fame gruund it might be faid that murders and rob
beries were alto the cirfpeurailons of Pauvisescs,a94l
should not be punithed by-the -executioner. He con-
tended that the population molt fupport itfelf by 03.
tural means in our Welt India iflands as well as 41
every other part of the world, if the Haves were well
treated. If during the lad ten years the black P°'
pulation of our Weft India Colonies had, inct eafed as
fall as the black population of Carolina, r.c 4110" Id
have now eight hundred thoufand initead of five
hundred thouland, and then there would be IT
danger of the waile lands in
Jamaica wanting cult
vators. He was convinced that the confequence of.
the abolition would be, that matters would be obliged
to treat their Haves better, and that in return for that
1 the flares would hare more affediou for their mailers,