of duty in the surgeon, broke it.  “Now,” says he, “you must cut it off; or the man will die.”  We might console ourselves, perhaps, that this happened in a French island; but he would select another instance, which had happened in one of our own.  Mr. Ross heard the shrieks of a female issuing from an out-house; and so piercing, that he determined to me what was going on.  On looking in he perceived a young female tied up to a beam by her wrists, entirely naked, and in the act of involuntary writhing and swinging; while the author of her torture was standing below her with a lighted torch in his hand, which he applied to all the parts of her body as it approached him.  What crime this miserable woman had perpetrated he knew not; but the human mind could not conceive a crime warranting such a punishment.

He was glad to see that these tales affected the House.  Would they then sanction enormities, the bare recital of which made them shudder?  Let them remember that humanity did not consist in a squeamish ear.  It did not consist in shrinking and starting at such tales as these; but in a disposition of the heart to remedy the evils they unfolded.  Humanity belonged rather to the mind than to the nerves.  But, if so, it should prompt men to charitable exertion.  Such exertion was necessary in the present case.  It was necessary for the credit of our jurisprudence at home, and our character abroad.  For what would any man think of our justice, who should see another hanged for a crime, which would be innocence itself, if compared with those enormities, which were allowed in Africa and the West Indies under the sanction of the British parliament?

It had been said, however, in justification of the trade, that the Africans were less happy at home than in the Islands.  But what right had we to be judges of their condition?  They would tell us a very different tale, if they were asked.  But it was ridiculous to say, that we bettered their condition, when we dragged them from everything dear in life to the most abject state of slavery.

One argument had been used, which for a subject so grave was the most ridiculous he had ever heard.  Mr. Alderman Watson had declared the Slave Trade to be necessary on account of its connexion with our fisheries.  But what was this but an acknowledgment of the manner, in which these miserable beings, were treated?  The trade was to be kept up, with all its enormities, in order that there might be persons to consume the refuse fish from Newfoundland, which was too bad for anybody else to eat.

It had been said that England ought not to abolish the Slave Trade, unless other nations would also give it up.  But what kind of morality was this?  The Trade was defensible upon no other principle than that of a highwayman.  Great Britain could not keep it upon these terms.  Mere gain was not a motive for a great country to rest on, as a justification of any measure.  Honour was its superior; and justice was superior to honour.