OUR COMMERCE WITH AFRICA. 377 



From the commencement of the sixteenth cen- 

 tury to that of the nineteenth in protecting and 

 fostering the slave-trade, — by legislative enact- 

 ments, in granting premiums to the importer 

 and bounties to the slave-holder, we endeavoured 

 by all means in our power to demoralise and 

 disorganise Africa. During that time we have 

 been the means of destroying life to a frightful 

 extent, — of desolating whole districts, of annihi- 

 lating all the domestic relations, changing the 

 love of parents for their children to that of ani- 

 mals for their offspring. We have introduced and 

 fomented universal distrust amongst a people 

 naturally confiding. We have refused to take 

 anything from them but slaves, and have turned 

 round and reproached them with indolence in 

 not cultivating their own soil. We have debased 

 and degraded them to the level of animals, and 

 taunted them with mental incapacity. We have 

 heaped on them misery and suffering, contumely 

 and scorn. We have denied them instruction, 

 and accused them of ignorance. We have abused 

 them for idleness while fattening upon their 

 labour, and have turned round with the Pharisee 

 and said, " God, I thank thee, I am not such as 

 these." 



