GENERAL HISTORY. 



[21 



advantageously disposed of hi this 

 country. It would furnish the 

 means of giving to 8,000 indivi- 

 duals the sum of 50/. each. He 

 regarded it as false humanity to 

 be thus seeking for foreign chan- 

 nels for the disposal of our 

 money, however benevolent our 

 intention. 



Mr. Wilberforce confessed his 

 surprise at the observations ^'of 

 the hon. baronet ; and was per- 

 suaded that the House would 

 think that the sum of 400,000/. 

 could not be better expended 

 than in the way proposed. As 

 to the proposal for granting 50/. 

 each to 8,000 individuals in this 

 country, the hon. baronet forgot 

 that if the sum were not voted 

 for the purpose under discussion, 

 it would not be voted at all. 

 One thing was perfectly clear, that 

 the treaty, and with it all hope of 

 the extinction of the slave trade, 

 must be wholly rejected, or that 

 it must be accepted with the 

 pecuniary stipulation under con- 

 sideration. As one most seriously 

 interested in the abolition of the 

 slave trade, he thought the noble 

 lord entitled to his warmest gra- 

 titude for the efforts he had made 

 during a long course of diploma- 

 tic attention to the subject, and 

 for the successful issue to which 

 he had finally brought them. 



Sir James Mackintosh said, 

 that he approved the present 

 treaty in the highest degree, 

 because it gave the right of 

 mutual search, the only possible se- 

 curity for the execution of laws of 

 abolition, and because parliament 

 had already pledged itself to ap- 

 prove and support such measures 

 by those successive addresses in 

 which they had intreated the 



Piince Regent to employ all the 

 influence and resources of this 

 country to procure universal abo- 

 lition. 



Mr. Bennet spoke warmly 

 upon the conduct of France on the 

 subject of the slave trade. He 

 begged the House to recollect, 

 that in about a month after the 

 battle by which the Bourbons 

 were placed on the throne, it was 

 signified by the French minister 

 to our own, that as far as France 

 was concerned, the traffic had 

 ceased every where, and for ever. 

 It being discovered in this coun- 

 try, that it was still carried on 

 by France with great vigour, 

 another application was made by 

 Sir Charles Stewart, requiring to 

 know what steps had been taken 

 to carry the abolition into effect. 

 The answer was, that some colo- 

 nial regulation had taken place ; 

 but it had subsequently come 

 out in court, that no such order 

 or regulation had ever been issued. 

 An active trade in slaves was 

 well known to have been carried 

 on, to a very recent period, by 

 French subjects. Since the de- 

 livery of Senegal to France, the 

 trade had revived in that part of 

 Africa, and had given rise to all 

 those evils with which it was 

 formerly attended. He would ask 

 the noble lord if we were still to 

 allow ourselves to be deluded by 

 the French government. Was a 

 treaty to be no security ? Was 

 there always to be some stroke of 

 policy played off? Was there 

 always to be some trick and sub- 

 terfuge to avoid carrying the 

 stipulations of a treaty into exe- 

 cution? He knew the faithlessness 

 of the race we had put on the 

 throne. He knew at the same 



time 



