altogether abandoning the direction of their vessel. That vessel had not been heard of since, and was doubtless lost. The house would, perhaps, be desirous of knowing what was the end of this horrible tragedy; he would therefore inform them, that of the crew, twelve lost their sight entirely, among whom was the surgeon, that five became blind of one eye, among whom was the captain; and that four others were partly injured. Of the negroes twelve lost one eye, and thirty-nine became totally blind. These poor wretches, he was sorry to say, were thrown overboard, and drowned. The policy of this measure was very obvious: had they been landed at Guadaloupe, no one would have bought them. The proprietors would therefore have incurred the expense of feeding them, without the chance of any return. By throwing them overboard, not only was this certain loss avoided, but ground laid for a claim on the underwriters, by whom the cargo had been insured, a claim which he understood had afterwards been enforced, and upon which the owners had afterwards recovered compensation for the damage they had sustained. The captain of the vessel, who, as he had before said, was rendered blind of one eye by this ophthalmia, on his return to France was invested again with the command of the same ship, and selected for the purpose of obtaining another cargo of slaves. So far from being called to any account for his conduct, nothing was talked of but the great care which he had shown towards his slaves, and the zeal and devotedness with which he

had applied himself to their ease and comfort. What must be the system acted upon in France with regard to the prevention of this inhuman traffic, when such an instance of cruelty and barbarity as he had stated to the house had excited no attention in Paris, except in a medical point of view, when the French government did not think it requisite to make the slightest inquiry into the case stated to it, but boldly and without hesitation declared, that the Rodeur had not been guilty of any interference in the slave trade? Was it not horrible to suppose that any set of men could make themselves so blind to the real character of this system as to lend to it their support, when the very anecdotes which he had cited, and which had been laid before the public, not in a court of justice, as they ought to have been, but in a medical journal as a matter of science, proved that it was a disgrace, an almost indelible disgrace to the nation which upheld it? His hopes with regard to France, he must confess, had been grievously disappointed. He trusted, however, that that high spirited and magnanimous nation would yet awake to its true glory; would yet recognize the true road to prosperity and happiness, and would yet leave the accursed path on which it was then treading, as it was a path which would never lead to commercial greatness any more than it would to national felicity.

The great difficulty which appeared between him and the full completion of his wishes on this subject, was the concession of the mutual right of search, a measure for which his noble friend opposite

had

had contended, but contended in vain. That right of search had been the object of a distinct convention of this country with Spain and Portugal; and there was no other effectual mode of putting an end to this execrable traffic. Though he was inclined to admit that it might not, in all cases, be politic to recommend to the adoption of another government, a plan to which that other government was decidedly hostile, still he must contend that when there was no other plan than that which he had mentioned which could accomplish the end which he had in view, he was justified, nay compelled by an urgent sense of duty, to advocate the propriety of pressing its adoption upon the court of France, in the hope that that court would be induced after adopting it to give up entirely that branch of trade with which it was connected. France owed it not less to her greatness, than to her honour, to abandon this inhuman traffic altogether; or if she would not consent formally to abandon it, to agree to a mutual right of search. France was possessed of sufficient strength and military glory to convince the world that no motives of fear or meanness had impelled her to such a concession the conduct of so great and gallant a nation could not for a moment be misinterpreted or misconceived, especially as we offered to her the right of dealing with our vessels as we wished to deal with hers, as we were willing to allow to her cruisers that right of search which we wished to obtain for our own, and as we surrendered to her as much of maritime right as we were desirous of taking from her. If he could but

once obtain the concession of a mutual right of search, which he thought a measure infinitely more efficacious than the registry of slaves proposed by his honourable friend the member for Weymouth, he should then come to that point to which he trusted that they were fast approaching, namely, the placing of the slave trade in the list of piracies. Pirates were justly entitled the enemies of all mankind; and yet they had not half so richly deserved that appellation as those who were engaged in the odious traffic in human flesh. He was full of hope that the time was not far distant when every Christian power would place the slave trade on a level with piracy, and punish as pirates all who were engaged in it. America had already done so; she had exhibited her zeal in this holy cause in the purest light, and had made her sincerity clear even beyond the shadow of a doubt. The American cruisers had exerted themselves in conjunction with our own, with an effect and energy to which he willingly gave his warmest admiration. If other nations had exerted themselves with the same zeal or activity, the traffic to which he was now obliged to call the attention of the house would have long since expired; and, instead of mourning over the evils which it still inflicted on mankind, he should have had the satisfaction of rejoicing over the benefits which its total abolition had diffused to almost every quarter of the habitable globe.

It was known that the countries on the coast of Africa which had been ceded by this country to France, were those very countries in which the blessings derived

from

from the abolition of the slave trade, had been most strongly illustrated. They were countries abounding with noble bays, fine harbours, and great rivers. It was at the mouth of great rivers that civilization had in all cases commenced its existence; and exactly in such places in these regions of Africa had civilization once more began to deal out its blessings. The happy scenes of rural life, which had so long been unknown to the wretched inhabitants of the torrid zone, were at the time of our ceding them to France beginning to flourish among them. Whilst the slave trade continued to spread its baneful influence over those regions, it was only in the thicket or the forest that the habitation of the African was to be found. Within a few years after its cessation, the novel scene of villages and plantations rising gradually from the banks of the various rivers, pleased the eye and gladdened the heart of every voyager. In giving up the countries over which so bright a futurity appeared to be dawning, we thought that we were ceding them to a brave and gallant nation, and not to a set of base and mercenary traders, who would invite over the Moors to ravage with fire and sword the improvements of Africa, and to reduce to their former desolation, and barrenness, regions which were beginning to smile amidst the security and comfort of peaceful industry and legitimate commerce. All the prospects of future civilization were thus blasted; all the symptoms of future happiness had fled and vanished. Such, too, was the case in Guadaloupe, as if our ces

sions to France on both sides of the Atlantic were to be attended with the utmost misery to the parties ceded. He hoped that his noble friend opposite would have better success in his future negotiations on this subject, than he had met with in his past; not that he attributed to him any lukewarmness in that great and holy cause, which it had fallen to his lot that night to advocate;-by no means: a mistaken sense of this important question, in a quarter over which his noble friend had not and could not have any influence, had as yet prevented him from obtaining that success which his own exertions and the justice of his cause so imperiously demanded. He trusted that that mistaken sense would soon cease to exist. The wise disposer of all events had ordained, that national prosperity should never be founded upon national guilt, but on the contrary, that the conduct which was prescribed by justice should alone be conducive to national felicity. The honourable member then concluded amid loud and long cheers, by moving an address to his majesty, similar in form and effect to that voted last night in the house of lords; but to which the following addition (as we understand) has been made :-"That while we thus entreat his majesty to concert with other persons the means of carrying into complete effect this great cause, we are not merely prompted by a sense of what is due to the general obligations of justice and humanity-we cannot but feel that to Africa we owe a debt which conscience and honour oblige us to repay; and though we congratulate his majesty on

the

the generous zeal which Great Britain has manifested, and the costly sacrifices she has made in vindicating in this instance the rights and happiness of our fellowcreatures; yet we cannot reflect without remorse, that we ourselves were so long among the very foremost in carrying on this guilty commerce. Since we are now aware of its real character, it becomes us to be earnest and incessant in our endeavours to impress the truth on others who may have been misled by our example; and as we contributed so largely to prolong the misery and barbarism of the Africans, we should now be proportionally earnest in using the means with which providence has endowed us for promoting their civilization and happiness."

The Marquis of Londonderry, in common with the house, always listened with the utmost pleasure to his honourable friend who had just sat down; but on no subject with greater delight than when, in the splendor of his eloquence, he was pouring forth the warmth of his heart on the subject of the abolition of the slave trade,-a cause of which he was the founder, the parent, and the protector. He

had heard him that night with the greater satisfaction, because while he had endeavoured to rouse the feelings of the house and of foreign states in favour of this common work of humanity, he had not forgotten to recal honourable members to the recollection that this moral and christian country had not only set a pregnant example in favour of the trade, but was long before it was awakened to a sense of the fitness of its abolition. What was hoped to be accomplished could only be attained by 1821.

slow degrees; by a gradual conviction of the justice and policy of the measure, operating at once on the governments, the legislatures, and the population of other countries. With regard to the address, he had no doubt the house had observed many passages in it, conveying a strong opinion, if not a pointed reproach, against foreign powers; and if he (lord Londonderry) had looked at the present merely as a political question, he should have thought it necessary to modify several of its expressions. He hoped, however, should not be thought to have departed from his public duty, if he gave it no opposition, considering that it might not be unacceptable to other governments to receive a representation of the state of the public mind in Great Britain on this question.

that he

Sir James Macintosh did not rise so much to add any thing to the eloquent speech of his honourable friend (Mr. Wilberforce), or to reply to the observations of the noble lord, in many of which he concurred; still less was it his object to withhold from government the credit it had justly merited since 1815, for having exerted every means to carry into effect the votes of parliament, and the wishes of the country. His chief reason for troubling the house was to embrace the opportunity which the address was intended to afford to every member of delivering his sentiments in accordance with it, in order that the unanimous voice of parliament, speaking the unanimous sense of the people, might produce a due impression on the continent of Europe. It was only by constant and reiterated appeals to the feelings and consciences of

P

nations

nations that any hope could be entertained of the final abolition of a system that disgraced the name of trade.

The noble lord had called Portugal an inglorious, but he (sir J. Macintosh) termed her an infamous exception, to the liberal spirit of other nations. The independent provinces of Spain in South America were governed by representative bodies, yet in all of them the slave trade had been abolished; they had conquered all Creolian prejudices, and had resolved that all the world should be as free as themselves. He appealed to the noble lord, whether the United States, in conceding what they had granted upon this sub. ject, had not gained a victory over local interests, quite as important as those of the Brazils, and whether they had not done all that internal laws could accomplish. Portugal, as he had remarked, alone opposed the civilization and liberty of mankind: she was as singular in her practice among the states of South America, as she was singular in her principles among the powers of Europe. Her conduct had been base and shameless; it admitted of no excuse; and when the noble lord talked of the commotions that threatened her, it ought not to be forgotten that five years ago, after the congress of Vienna, she had none of them to dread; yet then she had opposed to the abolition a resistance as obstinate as it was senseless. In 1810, five years before the congress, and the condemnation of the traffic Portugal had entered into a positive treaty with this country regarding the slave trade; yet, with this atrocious aggravation peculiar

to her, she still refused to carry it into effect. Recollecting all these circumstances, he could not help saying that Portugal had proclaimed herself an outlaw in the community of civilized nations, refusing to pay to humanity even that tribute which hypocrisy is said to pay to virtue. The motion of his honourable friend (Mr. Wilberforce) that night suggested the question of the possibility of ultimately abolishing the traffic. Some persons not favourable to the abolition were of opinion that it could not be extirpated by all our sacrifices and exertions, while the progress of the work seemed slow and irregular to the benevolent impatience of good men. Compared, indeed, with the life of man, its progress was slow, but not so when compared with the great instances of human improvement found in history. Every one must allow that much had already been done, who considered that all Europe had solemnly pronounced against it; that England and America had declared it piracy; and that those who now carried it on were obliged to cover their actions under some mean and hypocritical pretence. When he reflected on these things, he did not despair. He had lived long enough to have heard his honourable friend (Mr. Wilberforce) and those who acted with him, denounced as jacobins, and accused of the most dangerous purposes, for merely exerting themselves to procure the abolition of that traffic which was now called a crime in our statute book. He did not then despair. He believed that the principle of reformation in this country of reason and liberty, where opinions were free, and discussion