Page:On the motion of Sir George Strickland; for the abolition of the negro apprenticeship.djvu/8

iv Some points material to the argument on which I meant to have touched, I have treated concisely in an Appendix, and I have likewise added there some of the longer passages to which reference was made.

I am sensible that the statement must appear, to those who know how moving are some of the facts of this case, to be hard and unfeeling. It was not for brevity's sake alone that I avoided, where I could, expressions of feeling which the conduct of several parties might have elicited; but rather because I was, in the first place, sincerely anxious to avoid introducing into the case any new elements of bitterness, and, in the second, unwilling to make professions which circumstances would have rendered fairly open to suspicion. I am, however, not the less sensible that I speak and act, with reference to the negroes of the West Indies, under a solemn responsibility; and that if those who term themselves the negro's friends are indeed his only or his best friends, the West Indians, collectively and as individuals, are deeply guilty of injustice and ingratitude.