It told the colonial assemblies, You are safe for the present from the interference of the British Parliament, on the belief, and on the promise made for you, that left to yourselves you will do what is required of you.  To hold this language was sufficient.  The Assemblies might be left to infer the consequences of a refusal, and Parliament might rest satisfied with the consciousness, that they held in their hands the means of accomplishing that which they had proposed.”  In a subsequent discussion of the subject in the House of Lords, Lord Holland remarked, that “in his opinion there had been more prejudice against this Bill than the nature of the thing justified; but, whatever might be the objection felt against it in the Colonies, it might be well for them to consider, that it would be impossible for them to resist, and that, if the thing was not done by them, it would be done for them.”  But on this subject, that is, on the subject of colonial rights, I shall say more in another place.  It will be proper, however, to repeat here, and to insist upon it too, that there is no effectual way of remedying the evil complained of, but by subjecting the colonial laws to the revision of the Legislature of the mother country; and perhaps I shall disarm some of the opponents to this measure, and at any rate free myself from the charge of a novel and wild proposition, when I inform them that Mr. Long, the celebrated historian and planter of Jamaica, and to whose authority all West Indians look up, adopted the same idea.  Writing on the affairs of Jamaica, he says:  “The system[2] of Colonial government, and the imperfection of their several laws, are subjects, which never were, but which ought to be, strictly canvassed, examined, and amended by the British Parliament.”

The second and last step to be taken by the Abolitionists should be, to collect all possible light on the subject of emancipation with a view of carrying that measure into effect in its due time.  They ought never to forget, that emancipation was included in their original idea of the abolition of the slave trade.  Slavery was then as much an evil in their eyes as the trade itself; and so long as the former continues in its present state, the extinction of it ought to be equally an object of their care.  All the slaves in our colonies, whether men, women, or children, whether Africans or Creoles, have been unjustly deprived of their rights.  There is not a master, who has the least claim to their services in point of equity.  There is, therefore, a great debt due to them, and for this no payment, no amends, no equivalent can be found, but a restoration to their liberty.