1830.] Voice of the Counlry-^Abolition of Slavery. 75 



rant zeal are still less capable of forming an impartial judgment,, al- 

 though better qualified to support thereby any proposal which their plau- 

 sible leaders may be pleased to dictate. 



To enumerate even a tenth part of the mean stratagems, worthless 

 manoeuvres, and mendacious statements, which have from time to time 

 been put in practise by the demagogues alluded to, for the purposes of at- 

 tracting popular applause, and inducing a belief in the justice of their 

 pretensions to extraordinary disinterestedness and exclusive philanthropy, 

 would lead us much beyond the limits which we can, prudently, afford 

 to any article however important ; but as our attention has been called to 

 this subject by recent meetings of anti-colonial societies, and by publica- 

 tions emanating from that party, we think it prudent to adduce a few 

 facts to show the manner in which the vulgar clamour held forth as be- 

 ing " the voice of the country" has been raised, and is sought to be per- 

 petuated. And before concluding we shall endeavour to give a short 

 sketch of some of the consequences which up to the present time have 

 resulted from the exertions of Mr. Wilberforce and his coadjutors " in 

 the cause of humanity," leaving our readers to anticipate the afflicting 

 results which would likely ensue were the Government and the colonists 

 weak enough to give way to their designs. 



We may here briefly notice how completely the predictions of Lord 

 Castlereagh and other statesmen who, in 1806, recommended the gradual 

 abolition of the slave-trade, have been verified. It was at that time urged 

 in favour of " gradual abolition," that unless we first obtained the con- 

 currence of other nations, they and their colonies would continue the 

 trade to a much greater extent, and in a more inhuman manner, than at 

 that period ; and, accordingly, we find that notwithstanding all our nego- 

 tiations, the gross misapplication of seven millions of public money, 

 and the loss of thousands of lives, it has been, and is still, carried on to 

 a greater extent than at any former time, and with a cruelty proportioned 

 to the necessity of concealment all this may be attributed to the in- 

 temperate zeal of Mr. Wilberforce and his coadjutors, who took upon 

 themselves positively to assert that " no such thing could take place !" 

 Others who> were more under the influence of reason and common sense, 

 in vain foretold that the abolition of the slave-trade, by Great Britain 

 alone, would not put an end to it, nor promote the cause of humanity in 

 Africa ; but their local and general knowledge of the subject was de- 

 spised or overborne by the headlong ardour of their antagonists. We 

 now find, that, contrary to the opinions then confidently asserted by the 

 present Lord Lansdowne and others of the anti-colonial party, recent 

 accounts from Badagry and other parts of the African coast state that 

 the most savage and sanguinary barbarism is still prevalent to, if possi - 

 ble, a greater extent than at any former period3 and that blood continues 

 to be spilt like water ;* but we cannot perceive that the philanthropic 

 William Wilberforce, the friend of Africa and Africans, or any of those 

 persons who, under pretence of advocating the cause of humanity, have 

 made the slave- question the means of their own worldly advancement, 

 make the slightest movement in mitigation of these horrors, although 

 they are active enough in their endeavours to promote measures which, 

 if adopted, would reduce the slaves in the West Indies to a state of simi- 

 lar anarchy ! It was also, at the period alluded to, urged that the fur- 



* Vide Lander's Travels, &c. 



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