1830. J as they were, and as they are. 145 



the strictest good faith in abstaining from it, calls for the most pointed 

 remonstrances, and the severest reprehension of every friend of humanity. 

 In short, it has been computed that upwards of 600,000 human beings 

 have been forcibly carried to the foreign Colonies since the peace ; and 

 were the enormous sums expended from first to last, by this country in 

 payments to Portugal, maintenance of shipping, expense of the mixed 

 commissions in Sierra Leone, and elsewhere, in our ineffectual endea- 

 vours to put down the foreign slave trade, to be compared with the little 

 positive good that has actually been gained to the cause of humanity, it 

 is much to be feared that, without calculating upon the expense to which 

 we are still pledged in continuance of our efforts, the result would startle 

 the abolitionists themselves, and give foreign powers no very high opinion 

 of our political wisdom, however much they might affect to praise the 

 motives by which we have undoubtedly been governed. 



It is, however, among other causes for retrospective reflection on this 

 subject, melancholy to perceive that the number of beings who have 

 fallen a sacrifice to the additional cruelties incident to that concealment 

 which is necessary in the prosecution of an interdicted and illicit trade, 

 is perhaps much greater than the number of those who, by our exertions, 

 have been intercepted, and restored to a state of comparative liberty ; 

 while at the same time it may be doubted whether, in many instances, 

 the situation of those helpless beings, who have been rescued, is much 

 improved by the new circumstances in which fortune has placed them ! 



Foreigners may be disposed to question the prudence of our national 

 policy in having, by the abolition of our slave trade, divested ourselves 

 of great commercial advantages from pure considerations of justice and 

 humanity, yet they cannot now doubt the sincerity and good faith with 

 which we have actually carried the measure into execution ; and although 

 they may feel inclined to deride our expensive attempts to enforce the 

 same strict observance in others, they can have no just complaint if, in de- 

 fence of our own interests, now indemnified with those of justice and philan- 

 thropy, we insist upon the adoption of more strenuous efforts for carrying 

 into effect the decisions of the different cabinets of Europe, as expressed 

 at Aix-la-Chapelle, Vienna, and finally at Verona, ff that they continue 

 firm in the principles and sentiments manifested by those sovereigns, in 

 the declaration of the 8th of February, 1815 ; and that they have never 

 ceased, or ever will cease to consider the slave trade as a scourge which 

 has too long desolated Africa, degraded Europe, and afflicted humanity ; 

 and that they are ready to concur in every thing that may secure, and 

 accelerate, the complete and final abolition of that traffic." 



We shall now take notice of other circumstances deserving particular 

 attention. The want of confidence between the Colonies and the mother 

 country, has latterly formed a most unpleasant feature in our colonial 

 intercourse. 



We have already stated that there was a period in their history when 

 such feelings did not prevail ; and we see every reason to desire that 

 such times may again return ; for, unless they do, it is impossible that 

 the mutual benefits which the mother country and Colonies may confer 

 on each other can be fully realized. 



Of late years two classes of persons in this country have succeeded in 

 establishing an incredible influence over the minds and understanding 

 of their brethren ; the one, by most extensive pretensions to philan- 

 thropy ; the other, by holding up, as dolts and blockheads, all persons 



M, M. New Series VOL. IX. No. 50. U 



