He would now speak of the African and West Indian trades.  The imports and exports of these amounted to upwards of ten millions annually; and they gave employment to three hundred thousand tons of shipping, and to about twenty-five thousand seamen.  These trades had been sanctioned by our ancestors in parliament.  The acts for this purpose might be classed under three heads.  First, they were such as declared the colonies, and the trade thereof, advantageous to Great Britain, and therefore entitled to her protection.  Secondly, such as authorized, protected, and encouraged the trade to Africa, as advantageous in itself, and necessary to the welfare and existence of the sugar colonies:  and, Thirdly, such as promoted and secured loans of money to the proprietors of the said colonies, either from British subjects, or from foreigners.  These acts[A], he apprehended, ought to satisfy every person of the legality and usefulness of these trades.  They were enacted in reigns distinguished for the production of great and enlightened characters.  We heard then of no wild and destructive doctrines like the present.  These were reserved for this age of novelty and innovation.  But he must remind the House, that the inhabitants of our islands had as good a right to the protection of their property, as the inhabitants of Great Britain.  Nor could it be diminished in any shape without full compensation.  The proprietors of lands in the ceded islands, which were purchased of government under specific conditions of settlement, ought to be indemnified.  They also (of whom he was one), who had purchased the territory granted by the crown to General Monkton, in the island, of St. Vincent, ought to be indemnified also.  The sale of this had gone on briskly, till it was known that a plan was in agitation for the abolition of the Slave Trade.  Since that period, the original purchasers had done little or nothing, and they had many hundred acres on hand, which would be of no value, if the present question was carried.  In fact, they had a right to compensation.  The planters generally spent their estates in this country.  They generally educated their children in it.  They had never been found seditious, or rebellious; and they demanded of the Parliament of Great Britain that protection, which, upon the principles of good faith, it was in duty bound to afford them in common with the rest of his majesty’s loyal subjects.

[Footnote A:  Here he quoted them specifically.]

Mr. Vaughan stated that, being a West Indian by birth, and connected with the islands, he could speak from his own knowledge.  In the early part of his life he was strongly in favour of the abolition of the Slave Trade.  He had been educated by Dr. Priestley, and the father of Mrs. Barbauld; who were both of them friends to that question.  Their sentiments he had imbibed; but, although bred at the feet of Gamaliel, he resolved to judge for himself, and he left England for Jamaica.