OUR COMMERCE WITH AFRICA. 369 



lower grade, similar to our revenue cruisers, 

 and call them by their proper name, " Slave 

 Catchers." 



When it is considered that the squadron upon 

 the coast of Africa, the Mixed Commission Court, 

 and the colony of Sierra Leone, have been es- 

 tablished, defended, and kept up in the name of 

 humanity, it may appear strange when I assert, 

 that we have added greatly by those very means 

 to the miseries of the African race, and that, 

 under the impression that we were benefiting 

 them, we have been their worst enemies. 



I shall endeavour to prove, on the grounds of 

 humanity alone, that we are bound to extinguish 

 the slave-trade altogether, or to give up all in- 

 terference with it ; or if we must interfere, let us 

 merely stipulate that the slaves shall be comfort- 

 ably conveyed from one continent to the other. 



By our present system we have made the slave- 

 trade a smuggling one, and instead of the large 

 and commodious vessels which it would be the 

 interest of the slave-trader to employ, we have, 

 by our interference, forced him to use a class of 

 vessels (well known to naval men as American 

 clippers) of the very worst description that 

 could have been imagined for the purpose, every 



VOL. II. 2 B 



