Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1845-08-28

lSupplleu WIFI fresh ldOOrerS al cneal
rate. The evils of it, however, it may b,
fairly presumed are greatly exaggerated
And if ! might judge of the truth of trans
actions stated as occurring in this trade, BY
that OF those reported as transporting among
US, should not hesitate to say that a large
proportion of the stories in circulation ar,
unlounded, and most of the remainder high
ly colored.
On the passage of the act of Parliamen
prohibiting the trade to British subjects
rests what you esteem the glory of you
life. 1t required twenty years of arduou:
agitation, and the intervening extraordinary
political events, to convince your country
men, and among the rest, your pious king
of the expediency Of this measure; and i
is but just to say, that no individual rem
dered more essential service to the cause
than you did, In rejecting on the subject
you must often ask yourself: What, aftel
all, has been accomplished; how much hui
man suffering has been averted how many
human beings have been rescued from trans.
Atlantic slavery? And on the answers you
can give these questions, must in a grea
measure, presume, depend the happiness
o. your life. In framing them, how fire.
quently must you be reminded of Mr.. Gros.
venor, in one of the early debates upon the
subject, which believe you have yourself
recorded, "that he had twenty objections tc
the abolition of the slave trade: the frs
was, that IL aCas impoSsibze-the rest he
need not give" Can you say to YOURSELF
or to the world, that this first objection OF
Mr.. Grosvenor has been yet confuted ? II
was estimated at the commencement Of your
agitation in 1857, that forty-fve thousand
Africans were annually transported to Anne
RIGA and the West Indies And the NOR
tality of the Middle Passage, computed by
some, at five, is now admitted not to have
exceeded 9 per cent. Notwithstanding your
act of Parliament, the previous abolition by
the United States, and that all the powers
IN the world have subsequently prohibited
this trade-some of the greatest Of them
declaring it piracy, and covering the Afri-
can seas with armed vessels 10 prevent ii
Sir Thomas Fowel Buxton, a coadjutor
of yours, declared in 1910, thot the num-
Der Of Africans now annually sold into slave
ry beyond the sea, amounts, at the verv
least, 10 one hundred and fifty thousand
souls; while the mortality Of The Middle
Passage has increased, in consequence Of
the measures taken to suppress the trade,
TO 25 or 80 per cent. And Of the one hun
dred and fifty thousand slaves who have
been captured and liberated by British men
of war since the passage of your act, Judge
Say, an American abolitionist, asserts that
one hundred thousand, or two-thirds; have
persisted between their capture and liberia
ton. Does it not really seem that Mr.
Grosvenor was a prophets That though
nearly all the impossibilities' of 1857
have vanished, and become as familiar facts
as our house hold customs, under the ma
gic influence Of steam, cotton, and univer-
sal peace, yet this wonderful prophecy still
stands, defying time and the energy and
genius of mankind. Thousands of valuable
lives and fifty millions of pounds sterling
have been given away by your government
in truitless attempts 10 overturn it. | hope
you have not lived too long for your own
happiness, though you have been spared TO
see that in spite Of all your toll and those
of your fellow laborers, and the accom-
vi oil tlIdL HuIlldu dSeHCS COuIu
do, the African slave trade has increased
three-fold under your own eyes-more ra-
pidly, perhaps, than any other ancient
branch Of commerce-and that your efforts
to suppress it have effected nothing more
than three-fold increase of its horrors
There is God who rules this world-all
notwithstanding. He does not permit
his creatures to foil his designs. II is He
who, for his all-wise, though to us inscru-
table purposes, throws "jmpossbilities" in
the way of our fondest hopes and most
strenuous exertions. Can you doubt this !?
Experience having settled the point, that
this trade cannot be abolished By the use Of
force, and that blockading squadrons serve
only TO make it more profitable and more
cruel, am surprised that the attempt is
persisted in, unless it serves as cloak to
some other purposes. 1t would be far bet
ter than it now is, for the African, if the
trade was free from all restrictions, and
left to the mitigation and decay which time
and competition would surely bring about
If kidnapping, both secretly and by war
made for the purpose, could be by any
means prevented in Africa, the next great
est blessing you could bestow upon that
country would be to transport its actual
slaves in comfortable vessels across the At
lantlc. Though they might be perpetual