THE SLAVE QUESTION. 
413 
plojmcnt of treachery, rapine, depopulating wars, and 
the sacrifice of every principle of justice and humanity 
in order to gain his end. The white man comes to a 
tardy conviction of his injustice ; hut the system which 
has taken centuries to build up, cannot speedily be 
destroyed; and in the meantime, the previous requi- 
sitions are exciting the unhappy race to ruinous 
fulfilment. 
It is only half a century since England, so proud 
of her exertions in this cause, was more deeply im- 
plicated in the practice, than any of the nations 
which we now denounce with all the virulence and 
want of charity, customary with those who have 
tardily come to a knowledge of the error of their 
ways. The Slave Trade was not only upheld by 
public opinion in England till 1788, but was encou- 
raged by the Legislature, — enfoiced by treaties, — and 
by very stringent orders from the home authorities to 
the Governors of our West India Islands; who at- 
tempted to check the importation of slaves, — not from 
motives of humanity, but from fear that the unre- 
stricted encouragement given to the “ carrying trade” 
would cause the colonies to be over-supplied with 
slaves. 
About that time, however, the people of England 
began to be awakened by the philanthropy of a Clark- 
son and a Wilberforce, to a sense of the enormity of 
their guilt, and felt a desire to atone for the deep 
injuries inflicted on the African race by the chief 
