That such a measure would tend to their interest he had no doubt.  Did not all of them agree with Mr. Long, that the great danger in the West Indies arose from the importation of the African slaves there?  Mr. Long had asserted, that all the insurrections there arose from these.  If this statement were true, how directly it bore upon the present question!  But we were told also, by the same author, that the Slave-trade gave rise to robbery, murder, and all kinds of depredations on the coast of Africa.  Had this been answered?  No:  except indeed it had been said, that the slaves were such as had been condemned for crimes.  Well then:  the imported Africans consisted of all the convicts, rogues, thieves, and vagabonds in Africa.  But would the West Indians choose to depend on fresh supplies of these for the cultivation of their lands, and the security of their islands, when it was also found that every insurrection had arisen from them? it was plain the safety of the islands was concerned in this question.  There would be danger so long as the trade lasted.  The Planters were, by these importations, creating the engines of their own destruction.  Surely they would act more to their own interest, if they would concur in extinguishing the trade, than by standing up for its continuance.

He would now ask them, what right they had to suppose that Africa would for ever remain in a state of barbarism.  If once an enlightened prince were to rise up there, his first act would be to annihilate the Slave-trade.  If the light of heaven were ever to descend upon that continent, it would directly occasion its downfall.  It was their interest then to contrive a mode of supplying labour, without trusting to precarious importations from that quarter.  They might rest assured that the trade could not continue.  He did not allude to the voice of the people in the petitions then lying on the table of the House; but he knew certainly, that an idea not only of the injustice but of the impolicy of this trade had been long entertained by men of the most enlightened understandings in this country.  Was it then a prudent thing for them to rest on this commerce for the further improvement of their property?

There was a species of slavery, prevailing only a few years ago, in the collieries in certain boroughs of Scotland.  Emancipation there was thought a duty by Parliament:  But what an opposition there was to the measure!  Nothing but ruin would be the consequence of it!  After several years struggle the bill was carried.  Within a year after, the ruin so much talked of vanished in smoke, and there was an end of the business.  It had also been contended that Sir William Dolben’s bill would be the ruin of Liverpool:  and yet one of its representatives had allowed, that this bill had been of benefit to the owners of the slave-vessels there.  Was he then asking too much of the West Indians, to request a candid consideration of the real ground of their alarms?  He would conclude by stating, that he meant to propose a middle way of proceeding.  If there was a number of members in the House, who thought with him, that this trade ought to be ultimately abolished, but yet by moderate measures, which should neither invade the property nor the prejudices of individuals; he wished them to unite, and they might then reduce the question to its proper limits.