Sir S. Romilly, the solicitor-general, differed from Lord Castlereagh; for he thought the resolution of Mr. Fox was very simple and intelligible.  If there was a proposition vague and indefinite, it was that, advanced by the noble lord, of a system of duties on fresh importations, rising progressively, and this under the patronage and cooperation of the planters.  Who could measure the space between the present time and the abolition of the trade, if that measure were to depend upon the approbation of the colonies?

The cruelty and injustice of the Slave-trade had been established by evidence beyond a doubt.  It had been shown to be carried on by rapine, robbery, and murder; by fomenting and encouraging wars; by false accusations; and imaginary crimes.  The unhappy victims were torn away not only in the time of war, but of profound peace.  They were then carried across the Atlantic, in a manner too horrible to describe; and afterwards subjected to eternal slavery.  In support of the continuance of such a traffic, he knew of nothing but assertions already disproved, and arguments already refuted.  Since the year 1796, when it was to cease by a resolution of Parliament, no less than three hundred and sixty thousand Africans had been torn away from their native land.  What an accumulation was this to our former guilt!

General Gascoyne made two extraordinary assertions:  First, that the trade was defensible on Scriptural ground.—­“Both thy bondmen and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen, that are round about thee; of them shall you have bondmen and bondmaids.  And thou shalt take them as an heritance for thy children after thee to inherit them for a possession; they shall be thy bondmen for ever.”  Secondly, that the trade had been so advantageous to this country, that it would have been advisable even to institute a new one, if the old had not existed.

Mr. Wilberforce replied to General Gascoyne.  He then took a view of the speech of Lord Castlereagh, which he answered point by point.  In the course of his observations he showed, that the system of duties progressively increasing, as proposed by the noble lord, would be one of the most effectual modes of perpetuating the Slave-trade.  He exposed also the false foundation of the hope of any reliance on the cooperation of the colonists.  The House, he said, had on the motion of Mr. Ellis in the year 1797, prayed His Majesty to consult with the colonial legislatures to take such measures, as might conduce to the gradual abolition of the African Slave-trade.  This address was transmitted to them by Lord Melville.  It was received in some of the islands with a declaration, “that they possibly might, in some instances, endeavour to improve the condition of their slaves; but they should do this, not with any view to the abolition of the Slave-trade; for they considered that trade as their birth-right, which could not be taken from them; and that we should deceive ourselves by supposing,