by English law the moment he reaches the English shore.  But we have said enough for our present purpose.  We have shown that the slaves in our Colonies, whether they be Africans, or whether they be Creoles, have been unjustly deprived of their rights.  There is of course a great debt due to them.  They have a claim to a restoration to liberty; and as this restoration was included by the Abolitionists in their original idea of the abolition of the slavetrade, so it is their duty to endeavour to obtain it the first moment it is practicable.  I shall conclude my observations on this part of the subject, in the words of that old champion of African liberty, Mr. W. Smith, the present Member for Norwich, when addressing the House of Commons in the last session of parliament on a particular occasion.  He admitted, alluding to the slaves in our colonies, that “immediate emancipation might be an injury, and not a blessing to the slaves themselves.  A period of preparation, which unhappily included delay, seemed to be necessary.  The ground of this delay, however, was not the intermediate advantage to be derived from their labour, but a conviction of its expediency as it related to themselves.  We had to compensate to these wretched beings for ages of injustice.  We were bound by the strongest obligations to train up these subjects of our past injustice and tyranny for an equal participation with ourselves in the blessings of liberty and the protection of the law; and by these considerations ought our measures to be strictly and conscientiously regulated.  It was only in consequence of the necessity of time to be consumed in such a preparation, that we could be justified in the retention of the Negroes in slavery for a single hour; and he trusted that the eyes of all men, both here and in the colonies, would be open to this view of the subject as their clear and indispensable duty.”

Having led the reader to the first necessary step to be taken in favour of our slaves in the British Colonies,—­namely, the procuring for them a new and better code of laws; and having since led him to the last or final one,—­namely, the procuring for them the rights of which they have been unjustly deprived:  I shall now confine myself entirely to this latter branch of the subject, being assured, that it has a claim to all the attention that can be bestowed upon it; and I trust that I shall be able to show, by appealing to historical facts, that however awful and tremendous the work of emancipation may seem, it is yet practicable; that it is practicable also without danger; and moreover, that it is practicable with the probability of advantage to all the parties concerned.