The Constitutional History of England from 1760 to 1860 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 614 pages of information about The Constitutional History of England from 1760 to 1860.

The Constitutional History of England from 1760 to 1860 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 614 pages of information about The Constitutional History of England from 1760 to 1860.

Mr. Fox did not live to see the opening of another session; but, when that time came, the position which he had taken up, that the measure of which he had thus promoted the passing was an encouragement to do more, was adopted to its full extent by the chief of his colleagues, Lord Grenville, who, in February, 1807, himself brought forward a motion for the entire abolition of the trade.  Though he was Prime-minister, he could not introduce it as a government measure, since two of his colleagues—­Lord Sidmouth, the President of the Council, and Mr. Windham, the Secretary of State for the Colonies—­opposed it; though the former professed a desire to see the trade abolished, but would have preferred to attain that end by imposing such a tax on every slave imported as should render the trade unprofitable.  He had another obstacle also to encounter, in the vehement opposition of some of the princes of the royal family, the Dukes of Clarence and Sussex more especially, who were known to be canvassing against the bill, and were generally understood, in so doing, to be acting in accordance with the views of their elder brothers.  But he was confident that by this time the feeling of the whole country was with him on the subject.  He was resolved to rest his case on its justice, and therefore consented that the House should hear counsel on the subject, though he resisted their demand to be allowed to call witnesses.  Accordingly, counsel were heard for the whole body of West India planters, and for those of one or two separate islands, such as Jamaica and Trinidad; for the Liverpool merchants, and even for the trustees of the Liverpool Docks.  But some of their reasonings he even turned against themselves, refusing for a moment to admit “that the profits obtained by robbery could be urged as an argument for the continuance of robbery.”  He denounced the trade as “the most criminal that any country could be engaged in,” and as one that led to other crimes in the treatment of the slaves after they reached the West Indies.  He instanced “three most horrible and dreadful murders of slaves” that had been committed in Barbadoes, and quoted the report of Lord Seaforth, governor of the island, who, on investigation, had found that by the law of the colony the punishment affixed to such murders was a fine of eleven pounds.  He was opposed by the Duke of Clarence, who directed his remarks chiefly to a defence of the general humanity of the planters; and by Lord Westmoreland, who, in a speech of singular intemperance, denounced the principle of the measure, as one after the passing of which “no property could be rendered safe which could fall within the power of the Legislature.”  He even made it an argument against the bill that its principle, if carried to its legitimate logical end, must tend to the abolition of slavery as well as of the slave-trade.  He objected especially to the assertion in the preamble that the trade was “contrary to justice and humanity,” declaring

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The Constitutional History of England from 1760 to 1860 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.