52 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1804. 



doctrine should be broached in Ihaf. 

 house (whiclj had so often lieard 

 complaints of the extravagancies, 

 and atrocities, wliich marked the 

 diifereut stages of tiie Fr^'nch revo- 

 lution) that, Mhatevcr was done 

 from the impulse of ardent minds, 

 Avas to be excused ! 



'Jhe motion w as then agreed to. 



On the next day, sir James 

 Stewart prestnted a {>etition from a 

 Mr. Hart, against Mr. justice Kox, 

 one of the Irish judges. The peti- 

 tioner was a gentleman of consider- 

 able estates, in the counties of Do- 

 ncgail, and Londonderr}', and had 

 frequently scrred as one of tho 

 grand jurors for the said counties. 

 On his giving testimony in sui)port 

 of the character of a person indict- 

 ed, justice Fox had charged tlie 

 jury, " but who, gentlemen, will 

 give a character of this Mr. Hart, 

 degraded and disgraced as he was, 

 hy this traTisai'.liun, wliich must en- 

 tail eternal iufamy and .shame upon 

 his posterity ?'' The petitioner fur- 

 ther stated, that Mr. justice Fox, 

 had had him arrested, on an infor- 

 mation drawn up under his own 

 special direftion ; that he ordered 

 him into the dock, and having him 

 placed in the situation where con- 

 demned felons are brought up for 

 judgment, he asked him, " What 

 he had to say?" That, -afterwards, 

 he procured a bill of indic'tment to 

 be sent up against the petitioner, 

 ■which the grand jury threw out ; 

 that the petitioner conceived, that 

 the rights of the subjects of this 

 realm were grossly and wantonly 

 violated in his person, by Mr. jus- 

 tice Fox; and that he had no re- 

 dress but by application to parlia- 

 ment. 



The petition vras thou ordered to 

 lit on the tabic. 



On the 7th of June, Mr.Wilber 

 force's bill for the abolition of th 

 slave trade, was read a second time 

 after a long discussion. 



Lord Temple opposed the bill // 

 fofo. He thought the cmancipatioi 

 of the negroes, in the VV^esl Indies 

 must, upon the same principles 

 follow, immediately, the abolition o 

 the trade ; and, in such case, h( 

 conceived, that the passing this bil 

 would be sealing the death warran 

 of every white person in thos« 

 islands. 



The Chancellor of the Excheque 

 (Mr. Pitt) denied, that an immediate 

 puiancipation of the negroes wa; 

 the necessary consequence of abo. 

 lishinii the trade. It was, however, 

 one of the first consequences to b« 

 expected, that the situation of those, 

 who are actually slaves, would be 

 much ameliorated ; and that, in 

 time, they might be brought to thai 

 degree of improvement, as to be fit 

 for a condition of much less rigour, 

 than they are now exposed to. II 

 then, most ably, pointed out the 

 advantages which would result to 

 the planters themselves, from im- 

 proving the couditionof their slaves, 

 r.csides, it w.as evident, that the 

 danger of the West Indies was in- 

 creased by the prodigious increase 

 of the number of slaves, and the 

 planters themselves arecoming.year 

 after year, to parliament, for relief, 

 from the consequences of their own 

 conduct, in raising more sugar than 

 they could find purchasers for all 

 over the world. To continue, and 

 extend the trade, would bo to ex- 

 tend those evils and dangers. He 

 then pointed at the danger to which 

 our islands were exposed from the 

 emissaries of the blacks in St. Do- 

 mingo, and concluded by contend- 

 in-, 



