HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
trade, and the execution of the re. 
guwations adopted for that purpose.” 
By the operation of these mea- 
sures,not only was astop put to the 
future increase of the British slave 
trade, and a pledge given by both 
houses of parliament for the total 
abolition of that iniquitous traffic 
with all practicable dispatch; but 
aslave trade was abolished which 
used to carry over yearly above for- 
ty thousand Africans, from their 
peaceful homes, through the multi- 
plied horrors of the middle passage, 
to perpetual bondage and wretched- 
‘ness in the West India plantations ; 
‘and an end put to the murders, tor- 
ture, and plunder, which were daily 
and hourly desolating the continent 
of Africa, for the ®ipply of so enor- 
mous a demand for human beings. 
The remaining proceedings of par- 
Hiament during this session (with the 
exception of lord Melville’s trial), 
‘either related to subjects of less ge. 
Neral interest than these we have 
‘been considering, or they were left 
‘dm an incomplete state at the con- 
clusion of the session, or they failed 
“in attaining their objects. We 
‘shall, therefore, bestow on them 
“a very cursory notice. 
. A bill was brought in by the so- 
licitor-general (sir ‘Samuel Romilly) 
‘for removing certain defects of the 
bankrupt laws, and passed without 
“opposition. The chief objects of this 
bill (46 Geo. ITT. cap. 135.) were to 
‘procure redress for bond fide credi- 
tors, who by the present laws were 
‘excluded from any share in the 
Dankrupt’s estate, and to prevent 
‘commissions of bankruptcy from be- 
ing superseded, in certain cases, for 
fraudulent purposes. This bill was 
understood to be the commence. 
‘ment of a series of beneficial. re- 
e 
93 
forms, projected by the same learned 
gentleman in that department of the 
law. 
An insolvent bill was introduced 
in the house of lords by lord Hol. 
land, and after violent opposition 
from lord Ellenborough and lord 
Eldon, was carried by a majority. 
It was objected to this bill, in par- 
ticular, that it was founded on the 
false and inadmissible principle, that, 
because the prisons were at present 
crowded with debtors, they ought 
to be cleared by an act of insolven. 
cy 3 and such acts, in general, were 
reprobated as unjust and pernicious, 
depriving one set of men of their 
property, and encouraging another 
set to incur debts, which they had 
no means to pay, and might with 
prudence have avoided. It was an- 
swered, that, while the existing laws 
with regard to imprisonment for debt 
remained unaltered, whatever might 
be the objections to acts of insol- 
vency, it was matter, not of choice, 
but of necessity, from time to time, 
to pass them. ‘The necessity ofsome 
legislative provision to amend the 
existing laws respecting debtor and 
creditor was admitted on all sides, 
and by no person more explicitly, 
than by one of the noble lords 
(ord Eldon), who distinguished 
himself by hostility to the present 
bill. 
Leave was given to Mr. Serjeant 
Best to bring ina bill for preventing 
all interlocutory or ex parte pro- 
ceedings in criminal matters, from 
being published in newspapers. The 
ground of this application was the 
unfair bias which such publications 
not urfrequently made onthe minds 
of jurymen, before the evidence of 
the case came before them in their 
judicial capacity, But the remedy 
proposed 
