He would now address himself to those who adopted the opposite extreme; and he thought he should not assume too much when he said, that if both slavery and the Slave Trade could be abolished with safety to their property, it deeply concerned their interests to do it.  Such a measure, also, would only be consistent with the principles of the British constitution.  It was surely strange that we, who were ourselves free, should carry on a Slave Trade with Africa, and that we should never think of introducing cultivation into the West Indies by free labourers.

That such a measure would tend to their interest he had no doubt.  Did not all of them agree with Mr. Long, that the great danger in the West Indies arose from the importation of the African slaves there?  Mr. Long had asserted, that all the insurrections there arose from these.  If this statement was true, how directly it bore upon the present question!  But we were told, also, by the same author, that the Slave Trade gave rise to robbery, murder, and all kinds of depredations on the coast of Africa.  Had this been answered?  No:  except indeed it had been said that the slaves were such as had been condemned for crimes.  Well, then, the imported Africans consisted of all the convicts, rogues, thieves, and vagabonds in Africa.  But would the West Indians choose to depend on fresh supplies of these for the cultivation of their lands, and the security of their islands, when it was also found that every insurrection had arisen from them?  It was plain the safety of the islands was concerned in this question.  There would be danger so long as the trade lasted.  The planters were, by these importations, creating the engines of their own destruction.  Surely they would act more to their own interest if they would concur in extinguishing the trade, than by standing up for its continuance.

He would now ask them, what right they had to suppose that Africa would for ever remain in a state of barbarism.  If once an enlightened prince were to rise up there, his first act would be to annihilate the Slave Trade.  If the light of heaven were ever to descend upon that continent, it would directly occasion its downfall.  It was their interest then to contrive a mode of supplying labour, without trusting to precarious importations from that quarter.  They might rest assured that the trade could not continue.  He did not allude to the voice of the people in the petitions then lying on the table of the House; but he knew certainly, that an idea not only of the injustice, but of the impolicy, of this trade had been long entertained by men of the most enlightened understandings in this country.  Was it then a prudent thing for them to rest on this commerce for the further improvement of their property?