Star.
London, England, 1807-03-09 00:00:00

THE SL.IVE TRADE BILL.

The Public know our &ailments on this important queition, and
that we heartily applaud the determination that Parliament has
come to, to put an end to this iniquitous trace. We think k
but fair, however, that the fentiments of thole who would pre-
fer fame other method to gain the fame delirabh obJcm &mild
be fairly fisted to the Public. his for this ratan that we here
fabjoin a more ample detail than has appeared in any of the
Newhispars of the Speech delivered by Mr. Annul &TON iu the
Debate of Friday night, and which the preffare of other mat-
ter obliged us very much to curtail in our lalt.

Mr. ADDINGTON rofe to fupport the amend-
ment. He Paid that he had been anxious to offer
himfelf early in the Debate, in confequence of what
had fallen from him at the elofe of a former one,
when it would be recolleCted that the only ground on
which he Paid he could confent to wave his oppofi-
tion to !the Bill proceeding another Rage, was the
intimation given by his Right Honourable relation
(Mr. Bathurß), of moving an amendment fimilar to
that now propofed by the worthy Baronet. The
eonfißency of this courfe was obvious, becaufe Gen.
tlemen would fee that the Committee was the only
Rage in which the amendment, which had been
pi-opt:fed as one of the meafures for gradually extin-
Ruithing the Slave Trade, could be moved. In this
age of the Bill he fhould purpofely avoid any gene-
ral difcuffion of the principle of the Bill, which might
more properly, perhaps, be done on future melt-
Roos ; though be was perfedly aware that the Hon.
Gentleman (Mr. Ward) who had done himfelf fo,
much credit in his firß effort in that Houle, was
Rrialy in order in doing fo ; but he fhould confine
himfelf clotely to the amendment, and to Come ob-
fervations which, in his view of the fubjeft, were ne-
ceffarily connected with it.
The Houfe wiinld recollea that his Right Honour.
able relation, looking in common with almoll every
Member of the Houle to the attainment of this great
moral and national objeft, had fuggefled various
riseafures for its accompliflsment, in which he entirely
concurred. He propofed to make the Bill of laR
year, which prohibited the addition of any new (hips
to the trade, permanent ; to impofe annually encreaf
ing duties on every nave imported to the Well In.
dies ; and to fix the time beyond which it fhould not
be allowed to exit'. Its gradual diminution would
thus immediately commence. To the amendment
now propofed, confidered as a fubßantive meafure,
be was fully aware of the objeilions that might be
made, but none is it as an auxiliary one. It might
be fairly Paid, you have tried it already, and it has
completely failed: it had been tefolved in 17ot, on
a motion of Mr. Dundas, that the trade fhould crate
to exill in zBOO, and it had notwithftanding furvived
that period. It might alfo be fairly argued, that the
horrors of the trade would be increafed between the
interval of the paffing the All and the period of its
extinelion, by the increafed number of flaves that
would be imported into the iflands during that pe-
riud. Both thefe objeaions, however, would be en-
tirely obviated by the adoption of the other meafures
that had been fuggefled, and which he would readily
pledge himfelf to bring forward this very Seflion, if
be could entertain any hope that this amendment
would be carried.

Mr. Aoritawrox expreffed his aftonifhraent that he,
and thofe with whom he ailed, fhonld be charged as
being AntinboHamill:. Did the Hcn. Gentleman
who intimated this, prefume to fay, that, becaufe
they differed as to the mode, they were not as fincere
as thole who propofed this violent proceeding ?
He denied that any one meafure of gradual abolition,
properly fa called, had ever been yet tried by Parlia-
ment. Could that term be applied to the Refolution
of 1791 ? No fuch thing ; it was to all intents and
purpofes abfolnte abolition, though at a dillant pe-
riod. Had he been then in the Houfe, he fhould
have fupported that meafure, not becaufe he thought
it the bed, but preferable to immediate abolition.—
On that ground it had been fupported by a Noble
Relation of his, who had at the fame time declared
his preference to the adoption of encreafing duties.—
The fituation which he then held in the Chair had
alone precluded him from bringing it forward as a
direct propofition. In the year 1796, Mr. A. (aid,
that he himfelf had thrown out for the confederation
of the Houfe the pairing an Ad, for annually en-
creafing the proportion of the tonnage of (hips em-
ployed in the trade to the naves conveyed in them,
by which befides, the horrors of the middle paffage
would be gradually abated. Had either of thefe
plans been adopted, at this moment there would
have been no Slave Trade to difinfs. It was impof-
fible that it could have long furvived them.
He confeffed he thought Bill further meafures ne-
eeffary. If the Bill was meant to force the Planters
to adopt humane regulations, he thought it might be
done by a WI violent and equally effeanal mode.—
In tßox. after the Peace of Amiens, his Noble Reia-
tion had given a formal notice of his intention of
moving in the next Seflion, for a Committee to ex-
amine into the flare of the Slave Trade. This was
unfortunately precluded by the recurrence of the
term, which all feemed to agree rendered that time
improper for the invefligation. Had it been entered
into, perhaps he might have brought forward what
be was now about to fliggeft. He had waded
through all the mafs of evidence brought before the
Hook for the lalt twenty years, beginning with the
Report of the Privy Council in 1788 ; and had found
it contradiCtory throughout, both as to matter of opi-
nion and of FA. This he defied any Gentleman to
contradia. For many years pall, nothing that
could he caned new evidence had been produced ;
and, from phyfical mites alone, greit ch*pges mutt
have taken place in the Minds : we were thus work-
jog quite in the (lark. He fhould propofe a Parlia
mentary Commiffion, confifling of four or five of the
bell chofen individuals, for talents, experience, and
indullry, to be fent nut to examine into the flare
of Slavery in every Mind in all its details, and di-
reeled in their Report to the Houfe to fuggeft Inch
regulations as they might confider proper for each.
There fhould be referred to a Seidl Committee,
by whom they might be altered and improved.—
Such regulations fhould be tianfmitted, under the
folemn authority of the Legiflature, to the Governor
of each ifland, to be recommended to the Colonial
Legiflatures, with a dilluift decimation, that impor-
tation fhould be prohibited into that ifland which re-
filled or neglected to adopt them. Thus would legal
elk/Lion be caiplOyed, awl the agitation of the quef-

tion or our right to leFidate far the Colonies be
avoided ; a queftion whist he hoped he Gould never
hear difcuffed in Parliament. Of the fuecefs of this
meafure be entertained not the fmalleft doubt ;--and
it might go hand in hand with the others that had
been fuggefted.
Mr. AbninoTow laid, that he had thought It his
duty, at all events, to fubmit thefe confiderations to.
the Houk. With the...WO India-Gentlemen be was
wholly unconneded ; and he miffed that the Houfe
would do him, and thofe with whom he ailed, the
juftice to believe, that the courfe which they had for
so years invariably purfued in this great quellion was
on public grounds alone. Had his opinion been hafti•
ly taken up, he might have been difpofed to miftruft
it ; differing, as he unhappily found himfelf, not only
from thofe eminent individuals with whom it was hi,
happinels to be politically conneded, but from many
whom he revered and loved on both fides of the
Houle. He was firmly of opinion that the courfe of
proceeding, which be took the liberty of recommen-
ding, would obviate molt of the dangers and difficul-
ties that the more violent proceeding was expoled to,
and by the adoption of which, he firmly believep the
evil would be perpetrated.
If the wars in Africa (which he utterly denied) were
owing to the Slave Trade, time would thus be given
for thofe wars gradually to fubfide, and for civiliza-
tion gradually to find its way into that diftrafted
country ; the danger of malthcre would be precluded;
the capital employed in the Trade would migrate
into other directions—we fhould retain the advan-
tage of our humane regulations ; there would be leis
ague of the Trade falling into the hand► of our vi-
va!: and enemies ; the formidable danger of commo-
tion amongft the white, and of infurredion amongli
the black inhabitants of the Iflands would be avoided,
a danger which be could not contemplate without the
deepeft apprehenfions ; and above all the Trade it-
fell, which could not fail to be difgulling to every
man of moral feeling, would be, not nominally, but
abfolutely and utterly, extinguifhed.