If they

which has been pressed rather strongly by them. can show that their proposition of a gradual abolition is more likely than ours to secure the object which we have in viewthat by proceeding gradually we shall arrive more speedily at our end, and attain it with more certainty, than by direct vote immediately to abolish :-If they can show to the satisfaction of both myself and the committee that our proposition has more the appearance of a speedy abolition than the reality of it, undoubtedly they will in this case make a convert of me, and my honourable friend who moved the question; they will make a convert of every man among us who looks to this-which I trust we all do-as a question not to be determined by theoretical principles or enthusiastic feelings, but considers the practicability of the measure, aiming simply to effect his object in the shortest time, and in the surest possible

manner.

If, however, I shall be able to shew that our measure proceeds more directly to its object, and secures it with more certainty, and within a less distant period, and that the slave trade will on our plan be abolished sooner than on his, may I not then hope that my right honourable friends will be as ready to adopt our proposition as we should in the other case be willing to accede to theirs?

?

- One of my right honourable friends has stated that an act passed here for the abolition of the slave-trade, would not secure its abolition. Now, Sir, I should be glad to know, why an act of the British legislature, enforced by all those sanctions which we have undoubtedly the power and the right to apply, is not to be effectual; at least as to every material purpose Will not the executive power have the same appointment of the officers and the courts of judicature, by which all the causes relating to this subject must be tried, that it has in other cases? Will there not be the same system of law by which we now maintain a monopoly of commerce? If the same law, Sir, be applied to the prohibition of the slave-trade which is applied in the case of other contraband commerce, with all the same means of the country to back it, I am at a loss to know why the actual and total abolition is not as likely to be effected in this way as by any plan or project of my honourable friends for bringing about a gradual termination of it. But my observation is extremely fortified by what fell from

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my honourable friend who spoke last; he has told you, Sir, that if you will have patience with it for a few years, the slavetrade must drop of itself, from the increasing dearness of the commodity imported, and the increasing progress, on the other hand, of internal population. It is true, then, that the importations are so expensive and disadvantageous already, that the internal population is ever now becoming a cheaper resource. I ask, then, if you leave to the importer no means of importation but smuggling, and if, besides all the present disadvantages, you load him with all the charges and hazards of the smuggler, by taking care that the laws against smuggling are in this case watchfully and vigorously enforced, is there any danger of any considerable supply of fresh slaves being poured into the islands through this channel? And is there any real ground of fear, because a few slaves may have been smuggled in or out of these islands, that a bill will be useless and ineffectual on any such ground? The question under these circumstances will not bear a dispute.

Perhaps, however, my honourable friends may take up another ground, and say, "It is true your measure would shut out further importations more immediately; but we do not mean to shut them out immediately. We think it right, on grounds of general expediency, that they should not be immediately shut out." Let us therefore now come to this question of the expediency of making the abolition distant and gradual, rather than immediate.

The argument of expediency, in my opinion, like every other argument in this disquisition, will not justify the continuance of the slave-trade for one unnecessary hour. Supposing it to be in our power (which I have shown it is) to enforce the prohibition from the present time. The expediency of doing it is to me so clear, that if I went on this principle alone, I should not feel a moment's hesitation. What is the argument of expediency stated on the other side? It is doubted whether the deaths and births in the islands are as yet so nearly equal as to ensure the keeping up of a sufficient stock of labourers; in answer to this, I took the liberty of mentioning, in a former year, what appeared to me to be the state of the population at that time. My observations were taken from documents which we have reason to judge authentic and which carried on the face of them the conclusions I then stated; they were

the clear, simple, and obvious result of a careful examination which I made into this subject, and any gentleman who will take the same pains may arrive at the same degree of satisfaction.

These calculations, however, applied to a period of time that is now four or five years past. The births were then, in the general view of them, nearly equal to the deaths; and as the state of population was shown, by a considerable retrospect, to be regularly increasing, an excess of births must before this time have taken place.

Another observation has been made as to the disproportion of the sexes; this, however, is a disparity which existed in any material degree only in former years; it is a disparity of which the slave-trade has been itself the cause; which will gradually diminish as the slave-trade diminishes, and must entirely cease, if the trade shall be abolished; but which, nevertheless, is made the very plea for its continuance. I believe this disproportion of the sexes, taking the whole number in the islands, Creole as well as imported Africans, the latter of whom occasion all the disproportion, is not now by any means considerable.

But, Sir, I also showed that the general mortality which turned the balance so as to make the deaths appear more numerous than the births, arose too from the imported Afghans, who die in extraordinary numbers in the seasoning. If, therefore, the importation of negroes should cease, every one of the causes of mortality, which I have now stated, would cease also. Nor can I conceive any reason why the present number of labourers should not maintain itself in the West Indies, except it be from some artificial cause, some fault in the islands; such as the impolicy of their governors, or the cruelty of the managers and officers, whom they employ.

I will not reiterate all that I said at the time, or go through island by island. It is true, there is a difference in the ceded islands; and I state them possibly to be, in some respects, an excepted case. But if we are to enter into the subject of the mortality in clearing new lands, this, Sir, is undoubtedly another question; the mortality here is tenfold; and this is to be considered, not as the carrying on as a trade, but as the setting on foot of a slave-trade for the purpose of peopling the colony; a measure which I think will not now be maintained. I therefore desire gentlemen to tell me fairly, whether the

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period they look to is not now arrived? whether, at this hour, the West Indies may not be declared to have actually attained a state in which they can maintain their population? and upon the answer I must necessarily receive I think I could safely rest the whole of the question.

One honourable gentleman has rather ingeniously observed that one or other of these two assertions of ours must necessarily be false; that either the population must be decreasing, which we deny; or, if the population is increasing, that the slaves must be perfectly well treated (this being the cause of such population), which we deny also. That the population is rather increasing than otherwise, and also that the general treatment is by no means so good as it ought to be, are both points which have been separately proved by different evidences; nor are these two points so entirely incompatible. The illtreatment must be very great indeed, in order to diminish materially the population of any race of people. That it is not so extremely great as to do this, I will admit. I will even admit, if you please, that this charge may possibly have been sometimes exaggerated; and I certainly think that it applies less and less as we come nearer to the present time.

But let us see how this contradiction of ours, as it is thought, really stands, and how this explanation of it will completely settle our minds on the point in question. Do the slaves diminish in numbers? It can be nothing but ill-treatment that causes the diminution. This ill-treatment the abolition must and will restrain. In this case, therefore, we ought to vote for the abolition. On the other hand, Do you choose to say that the slaves clearly increase in numbers? Then you want no importations, and, in this case, also, you may safely vote for the abolition. Or, if you choose to say, as the third and only case which can be put and which, perhaps, is nearest to the truth, that the population is nearly stationary, and the treatment neither so bad nor so good as it might be; then surely, Sir, it will not be denied that this of all others is, on each of the two grounds, the proper period for stopping further supplies; for your population, which you own is already stationary, will thus be made undoubtedly to increase from the births, and the good treatment of your present slaves, which I am now supposing is but very moderate, will be necessarily improved also by the same measure of abolition. I say,

therefore, that these propositions, contradictory as they may be represented, are in truth not at all inconsistent, but even come in aid of each other, and lead to a conclusion that is decisive. And let it be always remembered that in this branch of my argument I have only in view the well-being of the West Indies, and do not now ground anything on the African part of the question.

But, Sir, I may carry these observations respecting the islands much further. It is within the power of the colonists (and is it not then their indispensable duty ?) to apply themselves to the correction of those various abuses, by which the population is restrained. The most important consequences may be expected to attend colonial regulations for this purpose. With the improvement of internal population, the condition of every negro will improve also; his liberty will advance, or at least he will be approaching to a state of liberty. Nor can you increase the happiness, or extend the freedom of the negro, without adding in an equal degree to the safety of the islands, and of all their inhabitants. Thus, Sir, in the place of slaves, who naturally have an interest directly opposite to that of their masters, and are therefore viewed by them with an eye of constant suspicion, you will create a body of valuable citizens and subjects, forming a part of the same community, having a common interest with their superiors, in the security and prosperity of the whole.

And, here let me add, that in the proportion as you increase the happiness of these unfortunate beings, you will undoubtedly increase in effect the quantity of their labour also. Gentlemen talk of the diminution of the labour of the islands! I will venture to assert that, even if in consequence of the abolition there were to be some decrease in the number of hands, the quantity of work done, supposing the condition of the slaves to improve, would by no means diminish in the same proportion; perhaps would be far from diminishing at all. For if you restore to this degraded race the true feelings of men, if you take them out from among the order of brutes, and place them on a level with the rest of the human species, they will then work with that energy which is natural to men, and their labour will be productive, in a thousand ways, above what it has yet been; as the labour of a man is always more productive than that of a mere brute.