As soon as it began to be perceived that such was likely to be the result of the abolition in regard to the emancipation, Mr. Stephen’s authority with his coadjutors, always high, rose in proportion to the confirmations which the event had lent his predictions; and his zealous endeavours and unwearied labours for the subversion of the accursed system became both more extensive and more effectual.  If, however, strict justice requires the tribute which we have paid to this eminent person’s distinguished services, justice also renders it imperative on the historian of the Abolition in all its branches, to record an error into which he fell.  Having originally maintained that the traffic would survive the Act of 1807, in which he was right, that Act only imposing pecuniary penalties, he persisted in the same opinion after the Act of 1811 had made slave-trading a felony; and long after it had been effectually put down in the British dominions, he continued to maintain that it was carried on nearly as much as ever, reasoning upon calculations drawn from the island returns.  Hence he insisted upon a general Registry Act, as essential to prevent the continuance of an importation which had little or no real existence.  The importance of such a measure was undeniable, with a view to secure the good treatment of the negroes in the islands; but the extinction of the Slave Trade had long before been effectually accomplished.

In the efforts to obtain Negro Emancipation, all the Abolitionists were now prepared to join.  The conduct of the Colonial Assemblies having long shown the fallacy of those expectations which had been entertained of the good work being done in the islands as soon as the supply of new hands should be stopped by the Abolition, there remained no longer any doubt whatever, that the mother country alone could abate a nuisance hateful in the sight of God and man.  Constant opportunities were therefore offered to agitate this great question, which was taken up by the enlightened, the humane, and the religious, all over the empire.

The magnitude of the subject was indeed worthy of all the interest it excited.  The destiny of nearly a million of human beings—­nay, the question whether they should be treated as men with rational souls, or as the beasts which perish—­should enjoy the liberty to which all God’s creatures are entitled, as of right, or be harassed, oppressed, tormented, and stinted, both as regarded bodily food, and spiritual instruction—­whether the colonies should be peopled with tyrants and barbarians, or inhabited by civilized and improving christian communities—­was one calculated to put in action all the best principles of our nature, and to move all the noblest feelings of the human heart.