The trade, it had been said, was conducted upon the principles of humanity.  Yes:  we rescued the Africans from what we were pleased to call their wretched situation in their own country, and then we took credit for our humanity; because, after having killed one half of them in the seasoning, we substituted what we were again pleased to call a better treatment than that which they would have experienced at home.

It had been stated that the principle of war among savages was a general massacre.  This was not true.  They frequently adopted the captives into their own families; and, so far from massacring the women and children, they often gave them the protection which the weakness of their age and sex demanded.

There could be no doubt, that the practice of kidnapping prevailed in Africa.  As to witchcraft, it had been made a crime in the reign of James the First in this country, for the purpose of informations; and how much more likely were informations to take place in Africa, under the encouragement afforded by the Slave-trade!  This trade, it had been said, was sanctioned by twenty-six acts of parliament.  He did not doubt but fifty-six might be found, by which parliament had sanctioned witchcraft; of the existence of which we had now no belief whatever.

It had been said by Mr. Stanley, that the pulpit had been used as an instrument of attack on the Slave-trade.  He was happy to learn it had been so well employed; and he hoped the Bishops would rise up in the House of Lords, with the virtuous indignation which became them, to abolish a traffic so contrary to humanity, justice, and religion.

He entreated every member to recollect, that on his vote that night depended the happiness of millions; and that it was then in his power to promote a measure, of which the benefits would be felt over one whole quarter of the globe; that the seeds of civilization might, by the present bill, be sown all over Africa; and the first principles of humanity be established in regions, where they had hitherto been excluded by the existence of this execrable trade.

Lord Carysfort rose, and said, that the great cause of the abolition had flourished by the manner in which it had been opposed.  No one argument of solid weight has been adduced against it.  It had been shown, but never disproved, that the colonial laws were inadequate to the protection of the slaves; that the punishments of the latter were most unmerciful; that they were deprived of the right of self-defence against any White man; and, in short, that the system was totally repugnant to the principles of the British constitution.

Colonel Phipps followed Lord Carysfort.  He denied that this was a question in which the rights of humanity and the laws of nature were concerned.  The Africans became slaves in consequence of the constitution of their own governments.  These were founded in absolute despotism.  Every subject was an actual slave.  The inhabitants were slaves to the great men; and the great men were slaves to the Prince.  Prisoners of war, too, were by law subject to slavery.  Such being the case, he saw no more cruelty in disposing of them to our merchants, than to those of any other nation.  Criminals also in cases of adultery and witchcraft became slaves by the same laws.