346 HISTORY OF THE [book vi. 
visitation of Providence, which usually arrests the 
vengeance of men, and by exciting softer affections, 
disposes them to acts of fraternity, lost its usual 
effect of procuring a passage even for the necessa¬ 
ries of life ; and those whom the storm had spared, 
your rapacity would have starved. 
“ The war ceased, and with it the dominion of 
France over all the islands (Tobago excepted, 
which was ceded to her in perpetuity); but our mi¬ 
series still survived; for the treaty of 1782, which 
gave peace and independence to North America, 
only transferred hostilities to the sugar colonies; as 
they have never ceased from that time to the pre¬ 
sent, to be harassed with vexations of one kind or 
another. The first measure by which they were 
annoyed, arose in the policy of the state. It was 
thought necessary to dissolve their connexion with 
the continent of North America. The consequence 
of which was, that Jamaica,- being deprived of its 
produce of negro provisions by a series of tempests 
and unfavourable seasons, lost fifteen thousand of 
her slaves by famine. And yet you talk of huma¬ 
nity as if it were a national virtue ! 
“ What • since has been the disposition of Great 
Britain towards us, may be learnt from the popular 
conversation at this day; from the conduct of large 
bodies associated for the abolition of the slave-trade, 
and ultimately of slavery itself; from the establish¬ 
ments projected and in execution, on the coast of 
Africa, with views declaredly hostile to our inte- 
