Intolerable were the mischiefs of this trade, both in its origin and through every stage of its progress.  To say that slaves could be furnished us by fair and commercial means was ridiculous.  The trade sometimes ceased, as during the late war.  The demand was more or less according to circumstances.  But how was it possible, that to a demand so exceedingly fluctuating the supply should always exactly accommodate itself?  Alas! we made human beings the subject of commerce; we talked of them as such; and yet we would not allow them the common principle of commerce, that the supply must accommodate itself to the consumption.  It was not from wars, then, that the slaves were chiefly procured.  They were obtained in proportion as they were wanted.  If a demand for slaves arose, a supply was forced in one way or other; and it was in vain, overpowered as we then were with positive evidence, as well as the reasonableness of the supposition, to deny that by the Slave-trade we occasioned all the enormities which had been alleged against it.

Sir William Yonge had said, that, if we were not to take the Africans from their country, they would be destroyed.  But he had not yet read, that all uncivilized nations destroyed their captives.  We assumed therefore what was false.  The very selling of them implied this:  for, if they would sell their captives for profit, why should they not employ them so as to receive a profit also?  Nay, many of them, while there was no demand from the slave-merchants, were often actually so employed.  The trade, too, had been suspended during the war; and it was never said, or thought, that any such consequence had then followed.

The honourable baronet had also said in justification of the Slave-trade, that witchcraft commonly implied poison, and was therefore a punishable crime; but did he recollect that not only the individual accused, but that his whole family, were sold as slaves?  The truth was, we stopped the natural progress of civilization in Africa.  We cut her off from the opportunity of improvement.  We kept her down in a state of darkness, bondage, ignorance and bloodshed.  Was not this an awful consideration for this country?  Look at the map of Africa, and see how little useful intercourse had been established on that vast continent!  While other countries were assisting and enlightening each other, Africa alone had none of these benefits.  We had obtained as yet only so much knowledge of her productions, as to show that there was a capacity for trade, which we checked.  Indeed, if the mischiefs there were out of the question, the circumstance of the Middle Passage alone would, in his mind, be reason enough for the abolition.  Such a scene as that of the slave-ships passing over with their wretched cargoes to the West Indies, if it could be spread before the eyes of the House, would be sufficient of itself to make them vote in favour of it; but when it could be added, that the interest even of the West Indies themselves rested on the accomplishment of this great event, he could not conceive an act of more imperious duty, than that, which was imposed upon the House, of agreeing to the present motion.