Page:Substance of the speech of His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence, in the House of Lords.djvu/50

 I trust, my Lords, that these three material circumstances will hear me out in my assertion respecting the general good treatment of the British Planters to their slaves in the West Indies. I may also with truth, my Lords, affirm, that the treatment of the Negro slaves in the British Islands, is far superior to that of all foreign nations.

In the year 1788, I was in the island of Jamaica, when the first consolidated Slave Act was passing; and an honourable Gentleman, a member of the Assembly of Jamaica, who had just then arrived from England, bit by the rage of the day for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, was desirous of introducing additional clauses whilst in the committee. I was at Spanish Town on the morning of the day on which the Bill was to be committed; and was told by this Gentleman of his intention to add clauses; and that he was going to Kingston to attend the debate, after having sold a particularly fine able-bodied Negro