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CHAPTER III.

Supports Mr. Wilberforce on the Slave Trade.-Opposes Mr. Dundas's Resolution for gradual Abolition.-Moves an Amendment for its immediate Suppression-is defeated.-Moves a second Amendment.— Denounces the traffic as infamous, bloody, and disgraceful to human nature. The Amendment supported by Mr. Pitt-defeated.-Clarkson's Labours.-Vote of the House of Commons against the Slave Trade.-Lord Mornington opposes Mr. Grey's motion for Reform in Parliament, both in Spirit and Substance.-Examination of his Arguments.-Fallacy that Reform was synonymous with American Democracy or French Republicanism.-Eulogies on the general Spirit of the British Constitution.—Mr. Fox replies-ridicules Lord Mornington's Positions.-Boroughs and great Towns then unrepresented. Saltash, Beeralston, &c. compared with them.-Changes since effected by Parliament. Marquess Wellesley Member of the Reform Government.-1793, sworn a Member of the English Privy Council.-Appointed Commissioner for Affairs of India.-Devotes his attention to the posture of the British Government and native Powers in India. -Confidence reposed in him by Mr. Pitt.

MR. WILBERFORCE was strenuously supported, in 1792, by the Earl of Mornington, in his noble efforts to extinguish the Slave Trade. His Lordship vigorously opposed the resolutions of Mr. Dundas for the gradual abolition of the inhuman traffic. He contended that the British Parliament had an undoubted right to abolish the trade, notwithstanding any previous sanc

* One of Mr. Dundas's resolutions was, "That from Oct. 10, 1797, duties be laid on every male negro [imported] according to his stature, from five pounds to fifteen pounds."

tion* which it might be supposed to have given.† The utility of a continuation of this inhuman commerce to the real welfare of our islands he positively denied: and conceiving the point at issue to be, in fact, a question of principle and feeling, he disdained to reason on the policy of the measure. On the 25th of April Lord Mornington moved an amendment, that the Slave Trade should end on the 1st of January 1793; the amendment was lost by a majority of 49; the numbers on the division having been, yeas 109; noes 158. On the 27th of April, the House having again resolved itself into committee on Mr. Dundas's resolution, "That it is the opinion of this committee, that it shall not be lawful to import any African Negroes into any of the British colonies or plantations in ships owned or navigated by British subjects, at any time after the 1st day of January 1800," Lord Mornington then moved another amendment with a view to a more immediate abolition of the Slave Trade.

The noble Lord "lamented the fate of his former motion for a speedy termination of the trade which had been already condemned as criminal, inasmuch as it was repugnant to the principles of justice and humanity. Had he followed his feelings, he should have proposed for the total abolition of this hateful traffic

"It has the authority of Acts of Parliament passed in this country, as well as colonial laws, which recognise, if they do not confirm it, and the sanction of ancient and universal custom." ·Apology for Negro Slavery, 1786.

+ According to the law in this country even during the permitted existence of the Slave Trade, a negro slave became, on the moment of touching the British soil, a free man.-Vide Salkend, 666; and the case of the negro Somerset ; State Trials, xx. 79.

the 2nd day of January 1793, immediately after the House had determined by a majority that it should not be so on the 1st day of January 1793. He was sorry that so infamous, so bloody a traffic should exist for one hour. Upon the justice of it nothing could be said; upon the humanity of it nothing could be said. Being destitute of principle, being hated by all good men, and, as far as regarded its justice or humanity, abandoned by its own advocates, what could be said on the subject? But lest it should be thought that he was persevering in a cause which, though good, was not likely to succeed to his wishes, he was willing to concede something to the opinions of those who differed with him, and move for a more remote period than 1793 for the abolition of a trade which he loathed and detested. He thought in his conscience that it ought not to last one hour longer; but as he could not get the committee to think with him on this subject, he must give up his own opinion to a certain degree; and as he could not do all the good he wished, he would do all that he could. Gentlemen had said in a former debate, that time should be allowed to the planters to cool, and to discover the truth of the assertions of those who contended that the abolition would ultimately be for their advantage. What length of time it would require to cool them, and for truth to make its way among the planters, while the liberty and happiness of thousands were exposed to invasion during the tedious process, it was impossible for him to say. If he were to put the question mathematically, he would say, The force of truth being given, and the hardness of a planter's heart

being ascertained, in what space of time will the former be able to penetrate the latter? For his part, he was free to say that he had known great numbers of planters of the clearest heads, and most quick and lively conceptions; and he believed they were, in general, persons who would not be the last to discover the truth of a proposition. On this occasion, however, he meant to allow them two years; and he would ask whether (if all that was wanted was to convince the planters that the abolition would not injure them) two years would not do as well as seven? He believed the committee would be of opinion, that the time proposed for the purpose of convincing their judgment was much too long; for that, in point of fact, they were convinced already; and it was nothing but mean and sordid avarice that induced them to wish for the continuance of this abominable, infamous, bloody trafficthis commerce in human flesh-this spilling of human blood-this sacrifice of human right-this insolence to justice this outrage to humanity-this disgrace to human nature! Private follies from habit had sometimes been excused by the charitable; they affected chiefly those who displayed them; they were objects of compassion to some, and from the most severe they met nothing but ridicule but for crimes, and those of the most public, notorious, hateful, detested nature, nothing could be said as an excuse or palliative. Every hour that this nefarious traffic was allowed to be continued was a disgrace to Great Britain."

Mr. Pitt supported his friend on this occasion. He urged the committee to adopt Lord Mornington's resolution, "That the Slave Trade do cease from the first of

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January, 1795."—"I feel," said Mr. Pitt, "the infamy of the trade so heavily, the impolicy of it so clearly, that I am ashamed I have not been able to convince the House to abandon it altogether at an instant-to pronounce, with one voice, the immediate and total abolition. There is no excuse for us, seeing this infernal traffic as we do. It is the very death of justice to utter a syllable in support of it!" Yet the eloquence of these two great men, which must have made the hearts of the man-stealers quail within them, could do no more than induce the committee to adopt the year 1796 as the time for the abolition of the legalized commerce in the human species.*

In the following year we find Lord Mornington, with more questionable judgment, opposing Mr. Grey's motion for a reform in Parliament. On the 7th of May, 1793, his Lordship addressed the House of Commons" against the whole spirit and substance" of the proposition submitted by Mr. Grey. The purpose of those who supported the measure then the subject of debate, said his Lordship, "was to change, not the administration only, but the very genius and spirit of the British Government; to separate those elementary principles of monarchy, of aristocracy, and of democracy, which are now mixed and blended in the

* In looking back to the history of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, it is impossible not to revert with a feeling of admiration to the early labours of that venerable and distinguished advocate of the rights of human nature, THOMAS CLARKSON, Esq., Playford Hall, Suffolk, who still lives in honoured old age to witness the fruit of that great harvest for which he broke up and tilled the ground, by his celebrated prize essay at Cambridge University, On the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, and his subsequent publications.

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