526 The Colonists, [Nov. 



tion as to the existence of the slave trade, are as widely distinct as any 

 two propositions that the wit of man can devise ? That the one is a mat- 

 ter which does not admit of dispute — that every feeling of humanity, to 

 say nothing of the feelings of people to whom freedom is dearer than 

 life and all that life can give, at once indignantly repudiates the very 

 notion of sanctioning the horrid trade in human blood — and that the 

 other subject involves a question of national policy, and is simply whether, 

 under the circumstances in which the trade, the capital, and the foreign 

 relations of this country, have become connected with the agi-iculture of 

 her Colonies, it is, in the first place, possible that that agriculture can be 

 conducted by any other method than such as now prevails there ? and, 

 if that be practicable, what are the means by which the change — when a 

 change shall have been determined on — shall be effected ? It has been 

 proved, beyond all contradiction, that the slaves in our Colonies live 

 under the protection of humane and efficient laws — that it is the interest 

 as well as the duty of the Colonists to preserve them in health and com- 

 fort — and that they practise that duty not only as Christians and 

 Englislimen ought to do, but in such a manner as some Englishmen 

 who call themselves Christians, and who are not Colonists, might well 

 blush at the contemplation of. The question then is clearly one of mere 

 policy; no one who means to be honest, and who is not a slave to his 

 prejudices — who can resist the influence of gross imposture and hypo- 

 crisy, even when they make their approach in the guise of truth and 

 piety, and who has a regard for his o\vn reputation — can deny that it is 

 such a question of policy that it has no connexion with, or relation to, 

 the odious subject of the slave trade. And yet, the anti-slavery partizans 

 either treat, or suffer them to be treated, as if they were the same ; they 

 press into the service of their present enterprize all the facts and argu- 

 ments which served the abolitionists of that traffic, and hire for the sup- 

 port of their cause weapons which were never yet wielded but for the 

 purpose of destroying the institutions that every good man ought to 

 guard with his life. 



But that the consequences of the mischievous industry with which they 

 ])ursue their designs, would, if they should succeed, produce any rather 

 than mirthful feelings, the present proceedings of the Anti-Slavery, or, 

 as they ought rather to be called, Anti-Colonist, partizans would be 

 extremely diverting. The adroitness with which they avail themselves 

 of every event they can make to bear upon their design of misleading 

 the public judgment, the unscrupulous welcome which they give to 

 every ragamuffin who offers to assist in the war they have begun upon 

 the Colonies, are most extraordinary. With the exception of that cele- 

 brated one for the recovery of the Holy Land, there has been no parallel 

 to the crusade that is carrying on for the desti-uction of the West India 

 interests. * In the one, as in the other, pious fanatics led tlie van, and a 



• A very slight variation from the description which Fuller gives of the crusaders, would 

 make it applicable to the Anti-Colonists : 



" We must in charitie allow, tliat many of them were truly zealous, and went with pious 

 intents. These were like to those of whom Bellarmine speaketh, who had no fault, prcEter 

 nimiani sanctitatem, too much sanctitie, which a learned man inteqireteth too much super- 

 stition. But besides these well meaning people, there went also a rabble-rout, rather for 

 company than conscience. Debtors took tliis voyage on tliem as an acquittance from their 

 debts, to the defrauding of their creditors. Servants counted tlie conditions of their ser- 

 vice cancelled by it, going away against their master's will. Thieves and murderers took 

 upon theiu the crosse to escape the gallows. Adulterers did penance in tlieir armour. A 



