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it has been done before us; we should not combat the ancient prejudice which, having found it impossible to withstand the ray of light that burst on its eyes, was dazzled, and incapacitated from proceeding one step further, so that it dropped down overpowered. It is no longer

expedient to proceed with a slow and cautious step, which was only necessary in the beginning, on the part of those Nations who took the lead in the glorious rescue of a large portion of the human race from ulterior debasement. We have only time sufficient left to us for putting an end to this traffic with a strong, firm and steady hand.

Nor ought that to be considered as any impediment, which the dissenting Opinion urges, in stating that, when the Coasts of Africa shall be shut against all European Nations, those Provinces of America which are under the absolute necessity of cultivating their lands by means of Slaves, will have no resources from which to supply the deficiency of such as die, or are manumitted. With reference to this observation, the Council desires only to ask, whether the Slaves to be imported, during the 5 years insisted on in the Opinion, are to be immortal, or whether, with a view of aggravating their wretched and unhappy situation, some new Law is to be promulgated, disqualifying them from ever being set at liberty, and from even aspiring thereto, and continuing their subjection to a thraldom of equal duration with their lives? But as neither the one nor the other of the two extremes can possibly take place, the Dissentients will not refuse to agree with the Council, that the Negroes in the case supposed would die, and obtain their liberty, as they do now. They ask,-what means of sup plying the defect will be left to the Provinces of America, which will then be under the absolute necessity of cultivating their lands by means of Slaves, whilst the Coasts of Africa are closed to them? And were we to adınit such a mode of reasoning, the inference would be,—not that the Slave Trade ought to be continued for 5 years longer, but that it should never terminate; since neither the Negroes will cease to die, nor to aspire to their freedom, and, consequently, to obtain it. We should come at once to the resolution, which in such case we should be compelled to adopt; for the same difficulty will always recur, and attempts will continually be made to remedy it at the expense of the liberty of the Blacks.

It is further alleged, in the Opinion of the Minority, that the value of the Negroes already domesticated in those Provinces must conside ably rise, and the produce of the Estates materially diminish; and that the price of colonial commodities will increase, in a ratio compounded of that augmentation and this diminution; if the prohibition of the Trade should be immediate. It is necessary, in this place, to make a remark concerning the mode which has been adopted in permitting the Slave trade in America, lest what is called a sudden prohibition, may have a higher sound than it deserves, and which, in fact, the dissenting Vote attempts to attach to it.

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If the first permission granted for importing Negroes into America, soon after the Conquest, had been indefinite as to time and place, if it had continued without any interruption, and if the question of prohibiting the traffic were at present agitated for the first time, then in truth, it might very properly be termed sudden, a denomination which always implies somewhat of violence. But the prohibition now under review does not deserve to be qualified as such, and cannot be so denominated. There have been many prohibitions of this Trade; as many, indeed, as have been the permissions granted since the Conquest, for as they were solely for a limited period, it is obvious that, after the expiration of each term, the prohibition obtained its force from the moment of the suspension. That which has been always practised and expected beforehand, cannot, therefore, be considered as unforeseen, nor ought it to be represented as an act of violence.

The influence of the Abolition of this Trade in America is not likely to become immediately perceptible or irremediable. The labours of agriculture and in the mines are already, to a considerable degree, performed by Creoles, the Descendants of the Negroes originally and successively imported. Where proper care has been taken to import Blacks, of both sexes, as has sometimes been ordered in earlier times, the Planters cannot have suffered by the long intervening periods during which no importations of Slaves took place, although they may not have realized such large gains as they would have done, if they had had a constant supply of Slaves; so that, considering the question in a legal point of view, so far as regards the Land-owners, they appear to be not so anxious to avoid losses, as to obtain advantages, an object undoubtedly much less defensible than the former. Nor will it be difficult to comprehend the truth of this reasoning, when it is considered, that the number of Creoles, of both sexes, is already very large, that they all work at their respective occupations, and that their number is proportionably augmented by their Children.

If the importation of Negroes were to depend upon the necessity which the Landholders are represented to have of Slaves, for the cultivation of their grounds, the Abolition of the Slave-trade must be greatly prolonged beyond 5 years. The extent of Land capable of cultivation in America, and its prodigious fertility, are well known; at what period, then, might the landed Proprietors be expected to have it in their power to declare that their Estates are sufficiently stocked with hands, so as to leave nothing to desire for keeping them in the most perfect state of cultivation? The Dissentients also assert, and assume as granted, that the Slaves who die, and those that are set free, must of necessity be replaced by others. Now such a necessity will continue for ever: but if this reasoning is to be admitted as valid for requiring Blacks, then let us instantly suspend all discussion respecting the Abolition of the Traffic; for, unquestionably, no one can pretend to determine how many Cen

turies it will take to put all the lands in America under tillage, even though the importation of Slaves should be left perfectly unrestrained.

The question, which we have now to discuss, is, not that of injuring Brutes, in order to benefit Men, but of favouring the latter, to the signal and certain detriment of their Fellow-creatures; and it is obviously an unbecoming exaggeration to assert, that, by the prohibition of the traffic, thousands of landed Proprietors would be doomed to lose a considerable portion of their incomes, and, what is a greater grievance, to suffer, without ever being able to remedy it, a great deterioration and defalcation of their capitals. But to this point, human nature is, of course, always alive.

The paragraph alluded to refers to 2 Classes of Persons: in what it expresses, it comprehends Men to be condemned; and in what it conceals, Men to be absolved. Let us examine the number of both, and what it is to which the former are to be condemned, and from what the latter are to be absolved ;-whether the Condemned are to be absolved, and the Absolved are to suffer the punishment of condemnation? Who are those that appear solicitous to acquire, and those that strive not to lose ;- whether those that are bent upon acquiring, thereby prejudice others, and whether those who complain, endeavour only to avoid injury and to suffer no loss;-and whether the latter find a resource in what nature has not deigned to deny to them? The number of the Condemned is doubtless large. But, if there are thousands of Landholders, who, by relinquishing the traffic, must lose a considerable portion of their incomes,-the number of the Absolved is infinitely larger. The latter Class are the Africans, who in this case are absolved from the slavery to which these very Landholders would in time have subjected them. It is, therefore, clear that, if every one of the thousands of Landed Proprietors can obtain Negroes, even by hundreds, the number of the latter who, for the sake of argument, at least, would be absolved, would increase to hundreds of thousands. The former, by far the less numerous, are to continue the system employed by the minority, and are to be condemned only to the loss of a portion of their external advantages, whilst their persons remain untouched;-the latter are to be absolved, not from any debt that might abridge their fortune, but from a slavery that threatened them they are to preserve their liberty, and thus to gain themselves. The comparison, therefore, being not between Men and Brutes, but between Men and their Fellow-creatures; let us consider whether the few to be condemned to the loss of a part of their incomes, should be absolved therefrom, in consequence of their having a better cause; in order that the others, who are infinitely more numerous, may be condemned to separate from their relations, and to abandon their Country for ever, in spite of the many objects of their love which it may contain,-and, lastly, to undergo a perpetual slavery, that is to say, to be lost to themselves.

The cause of the former, who are the fewest in number, rests entirely upon their desire to make greater profits to the oppression of the other party, whilst the cause of the latter, who form the majority, consists of a claim not to be injured in their liberty and in their persons, which claim is founded on rights that have been inherent in them ever since they be held the light. We ought, therefore, never to forget, that the question is not one between Men and Brutes, but between Men and Men, lest our judgment should overlook the cause of humanity and lean towards that of interest

The circumstance of the Estates continuing to be worked by the same hands, maturely considered, will lead only to this inference, that the Owners of them, fully persuaded of the impossibility of acquiring a fresh supply of Slaves to repair deficiencies, will abstain from overburthening them with work, and will treat them with greater humanity; for even though the latter feeling should not influence them, their own interest would induce this treatment, convinced as they must be that, by excessive labour during 4 or 6 years, they would exhaust their powers, whereas they might possibly derive benefit from their services. during 20 years, or upwards, by not calling upon them for exertions, beyond those which in reason and justice ought to be expected.

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Of minor importance is the consideration, that so soon value of Slaves shall increase, it will be more difficult for them to obtain their liberty, and that the boon, intended to be dispensed to the Inhabitants of Africa, is, therefore, exaggerated and questionable, inast uch as it tends to the injury and calamity of their Brethren. This point, indeed, seems to be out of place here: for if, in process of time, any injury should occur in this respect, the Law, as well as the equity of the case, would furnish ample remedies for it. Moreover, if, to avoid this injury to their Brethren, the continuance of the Traffic were to be permitted, the redress given to the unfortunate would consist merely in having augmented their number.

It may be affirmed, that, in the present state of things, the suppression of the Traffic would produce no where in America any considerable sensation, except at the Havana. In New Spain, the abolition would, unquestionably, have no effect. With respect to

the Provinces of Venezuela, they have nearly experienced what had always been anticipated as the eventual consequence of being overstocked with Negroes; and prudent and well-informed Persons of that Country have given it as their opinion, that had not General Don Pablo Morillo so seasonably arrived there, the People of Colour would have put to death every White Individual, in imitation of the scenes of the Guarico, in St. Domingo; consequently the prohibition will not cause any great complaints in those Provinces. The same may be said with respect to the other Points And, generally, although at every period at which Permissions for the importation of Slaves have been granted, they may have been necessary, the Planters have contrived during the

intervals to manage without fresh importations, and those who had it in their power have substituted other hands, until fresh Licenses were procured.

To induce an apprehension in Spanish America of the recurrence of the scenes of the Guarico, it is not necessary that the precise circumstances should again occur which took place in that Island; a conflux of a thousand other causes, that may unfortunately combine, might give birth to the same result. The examples of so many events produced by the Slaves of different Nations, similar to those of the Guarico, but attended with consequences totally dissimilar, prove that the apprehension is rational and well founded; and it must always be remembered, that upon that apprehension is principally to be justified the policy of not allowing any more Negroes to be imported into America.

Nothing has been alleged against Slavery in general; indeed it is found to have existed in all Nations; nor is it at variance with Evangelical Law. But the question is confined to the carrying on of the Trade in African Negroes. This practice the Council considers as repugnant to humanity, on which is founded the principle of Abolition,-a principle that has been recognized by the Powers concerned in the most solemn manner. And, consistently with this principle, it appears to be desirable that the feeling heart of your Majesty, penetrated by the justice on which the measure would be essentially grounded, should vouchsafe to resolve on the Abolition of the Traffic, which has been already condemned by the unanimous voice of other Nations, without allowing any further delay; which resolution, added to others of your Majesty's happy Reign, will have this effect, that, in process of time, your Majesty will be known by the name of the Just, no less than by that of Ferdinand.

ACT of the British Parliament,* " to carry into effect a Convention of Commerce, concluded between His Majesty and the United States of America."

[56 Geo. III. Cap. 15.]

[11th April, 1816.]

WHEREAS a Convention of Commerce and Navigation has been concluded between His Majesty and the United States of America :† and whereas it is expedient to give effect to such parts of the said Convention as require the sanction of Parliament; be it therefore enacted by the King's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, *Repealed by Act 59 Geo. III. Cap. 54. See Vol. 1818-19. Page 949. + London, 3rd July, 1815. See Commercial Treaties, Vol. II. Page 386.

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