History of europE; 



87 



^<jsfe. He could not, however, al- 

 low it to be said, that experience 

 justified the necessity of this cruelty, 

 as, in the instance which he had 

 mentioned, it had been fully proved, 

 that the cruelties practised in the 

 middle passage, were contrary even 

 to the interests of the West-India 

 planters, and slave importers. If it 

 were attempted to be said, that this 

 trade gave us a j^reat number of sea- 

 men, he should prove,' on the con- 

 trary, that it was more destructive 

 •to the lives of our seamen, than any 

 other in whicii this country was en- 

 ga,ged. As (o the ili-treatment of the 

 slaves in the West-Indies, he thought 

 it was sufficiently proved, by the ne- 

 cessity of continual importations. In 

 every part of the world, excepting our 

 West-India islands, slaves multiplied, 

 in the naturalway, instead of dimi- 

 minishing their numbers. jNIalouet, 

 the French author, who was forced, 

 by order of the first consul, to write 

 in defence of slavery, was obliged 

 to confess, that, since the revolu- 

 tion, the decrease of negro popula- 

 tion was less, on account of the 

 pregnant women being allowed more 

 rest, and the working men not so 

 much confined to labour. In Ame- 

 rica, instead of decrease, there was 

 a positive increase of the negroes, 

 without recurring to importation. 

 Since he had moved this question, 

 in 1792, there had been no fewer 

 than 300,000 Africans imported in- 

 to our West.lndies, 140,000 of 

 whom were for Jamaica alone. This 

 would be sufficient to shew the 

 dreadful mortality among our slaves, 

 whereas,all overtherestof the world, 

 the human rare is increasing even in 

 slavery. He said, that he had, hi- 

 therto, been supported in his exer- 

 t'iODSy by almost every man of dis- 



tinguished talents, and virtue, in the 

 country ; and he now called upon 

 the Irish members, who were added 

 to the house since the business had 

 been last agitated, to display that 

 benevolence and generosity which 

 were supposed to mark the Irish 

 character. He concluded, by mov- 

 ing " for a committee," to consider 

 the propriety of introducing a bill 

 for the abolition of the slave trade, 

 " after a time to be limited." 



]Mr. Fullercontended.thattliesitu- 

 ationoftheslaveSjintheVVcst-Indies, 

 was better than that of the labour- 

 ing poor in this coiiulry ; they were 

 better lodged and fed, and their la- 

 bour was lighter. He insisted, that 

 the tyranny of the native princes in 

 Africa was much more galling thaa 

 that of the slave owners in the 

 AVest-Indies. He asserted, that th« 

 cause of the necessity of fresh im 

 portations continually, was, that it 

 was impossible to keep up the stock 

 in the natural way, on account of 

 the scarcity of females. 



Mr. Barham supported the mo- 

 tion, but, at the same time, was able 

 to state, from his personal know- 

 ledge, that the negroes were in ge- 

 neral treated by their masters with 

 kindness and humanity. He did not 

 consider, that the argument, of the 

 abolition leading .to an emancipa- 

 tion of the slaves now in the West- 

 Indies, had much Aveight, or belong- 

 ed to the present question. 



Mr. W. Smith complimented the 

 last speaker, on the liberality of his 

 sentiments, and wished, that.all the 

 other West-India merchants had 

 concoived such enlarged and en- 

 lightened ideas, respecting their OAvn 

 lijterest. He condemned severely 

 the slave trade, both in its principle 

 and in its practice, and pointed out 



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