Page:Substance of the speech of His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence, in the House of Lords.djvu/60

 true to the allegiance they owe to the Imperial crown of Great Britain."

Much more, my Lords, might be said upon that subject; but I shall avoid all unnecessary illustration, either by facts or arguments. All European nations are anxious to wrest this valuable trade out of our hands. I shall not, like some advocates for the measure, advance as an argument that the French have abolished the trade, because they have at time no settlements in the West Indies. That is a specious but a weak position. I have every reason to believe, that the motive for the removal of from the Island of Guadaloupe, by the French Directory, was for the express purpose of re-establishing the Slave Trade in that island, which, since the passing of the Abolition, had been found very beneficial in a state point of view. The new opinions adopted in France, engendered in the madness of the moment, and productive of the anarchy and confusion observable by every