should be kept in order in various ways.  They should be liable to have their slaves taken from them, and put in trust.  Every instrument of punishment should be banished, except the whip.  The number of lashes should be limited; and the punishment should not be repeated till after intervals.  These and other improvements should be immediately adopted by the planters.  The character of the exemplary among them was hurt by being confounded with that of lower and baser men.  He concluded by stating, that the owners of slaves were entitled to compensation, if, by means of the abolition, they should not be able to find labourers for the cultivation of their lands[A].

[Footnote A:  Mr. Vaughan declared in a future stage of the debate, that he wished to see a prudent termination both of the Slave-trade and of slavery; and that, though he was the eldest son of his father, he never would, on any consideration, become the owner of a slave.]

Mr. Henry Thornton conceived, that the two last speakers had not spoken to the point.  The first had described the happy state of the slaves in the West Indies.  The latter had made similar representations; but yet had allowed, that much improvement might be made in their condition.  But this had nothing to do with the question then before them.  The manner of procuring slaves in Africa was the great evil to be remedied.  Africa was to be stripped of its inhabitants to supply a population for the West Indies.  There was a Dutch proverb, which said, “My son, get money, honestly if you can—­but get money:”  or, in other words, “Get slaves, honestly if you can—­but get slaves.”  This was the real grievance; and the two honourable gentlemen, by confining their observations to the West Indies, had entirely overlooked it.

Though this evil had been fully proved, he could not avoid stating to the House some new facts, which had come to his knowledge as a director of the Sierra Leone Company, and which would still further establish it.  The consideration, that they had taken place since the discussion of the last year on this subject, obliged him to relate them.

Mr. Falconbridge, agent to the Company, sitting one evening in Sierra Leone, heard a shout, and immediately afterwards the report of a gun.  Fearing an attack, he armed forty of the settlers, and rushed with them to the place from whence the noise came.  He found a poor wretch, who had been crossing from a neighbouring village, in the possession of a party of kidnappers, who were tying his hands.  Mr. Falconbridge, however, dared not rescue him, lest, in the defenceless state of his own town, retaliation might be made upon him.

At another time a young woman, living half a mile off, was sold, without any criminal charge, to one of the slave-ships.  She was well acquainted with the agent’s wife, and had been with her only the day before.  Her cries were heard; but it was impossible to relieve her.

At another time a young lad, one of the free settlers who went from England, was caught by a neighbouring chief, as he was straggling alone from home, and sold for a slave.  The pretext was, that some one in the town of Sierra Leone had committed an offence.  Hence the first person belonging to it, who could be seized, was to be punished.  Happily the free settlers saw him in his chains; and they recovered him, before he was conveyed to the ship.