ordered the feet to be put in.  This was done.  The nails and skin came off.  Oiled cloths were then put round them.  The child was at length tied to a heavy log.  Two or three days afterwards, the captain caught it up again; and repeated that he would made it eat, or kill it.  He immediately flogged it again, and in a quarter of an hour it died.  But, after the child was dead, whom should the barbarian select to throw it overboard, but the wretched mother?  In vain she started from the office.  He beat her, till he made her take up the child and carry it to the side of the vessel.  She then dropped it into the sea, turning her head the other way that she might not see it.  Now it would naturally be asked, was not this captain also gibbeted alive?  Alas! although the execrable barbarity of the European exceeded that of the Africans before mentioned, almost as much as his opportunities of instruction has been greater than theirs, no notice whatsoever was taken of this horrible action; and a thousand similar cruelties had been committed in this abominable trade with equal impunity:  but he would say no more.  He would vote for the abolition, not only as it would do away all the evils complained of in Africa and the Middle Passage; but as it would be the most effectual means of ameliorating the condition of those unhappy persons, who were still to continue slaves in the British colonies.

Mr. Courtenay rose.  He said, he could not but consider the assertion of Sir William Yonge as a mistake, that the Slave Trade, if abandoned by us, would fall into the hands of France.  It ought to be recollected, with what approbation the motion for abolishing it, made by the late Mirabeau, had been received; although the situation of the French colonies might then have presented obstacles to carrying the measure into immediate execution.  He had no doubt, if parliament were to begin, so wise and enlightened a body as the National Assembly would follow the example.  But even if France were not to relinquish the trade, how could we, if justice required its abolition, hesitate as to our part of it?

The trade, it had been said, was conducted upon the principles of humanity.  Yes:  we rescued the Africans from what we were pleased to call their wretched situation in their own; country, and then we took credit for our humanity; because, after having killed one half of them in the seasoning, we substituted what we were again pleased to call a better treatment than that which they would have experienced at home.

It had been stated that the principle of war among savages was a general massacre.  This was not true.  They frequently adopted the captives into their own families; and, so far from massacring the women and children, they often gave them the protection which the weakness of their age and sex demanded.

There could be no doubt, that the practice of kidnapping; prevailed in Africa.  As to witchcraft, it had been made a crime in the reign of James the First in this country, for the purpose of informations; and how much more likely were informations to take place in Africa, under the encouragement afforded by the Slave Trade!  This trade, it had been said, was sanctioned by twenty-six acts of parliament.  He did not doubt but fifty-six might be found, by which parliament had sanctioned witchcraft of the existence of which we had now no belief whatever....