Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/245

 tons of shipping, and thirty thousand seamen. This fine island, thus advantageously situated, had been lost in consequence of the agitation of the question of the slave-trade. Surely, so much mischief ought to have satisfied those who supported it; but they required the total destruction of all the West Indian colonies belonging to Great Britain to complete the ruin.

The honorable gentleman who had just spoken, had dwelt upon the enormities of the slave-trade. lie was far from denying that many acts of inhumanity might accompany it; but as human nature was much the same every where, it would be unreasonable to expect, among African traders, or the inhabitants of our islands, a degree of perfection in morals which was not to be found in Great Britain itself. Would any man estimate the character of the English nation by what was to be read in the records of the Old Bailey? He himself, however, had lived sixteen years in the West Indies, and he could bear testimony to the general good usage of the slaves.

Before the agitation of this impolitic question, the slaves were contented with their situation. There was a mutual confidence between them and their masters: and this continued to be the case till the new doctrines were broached. But now depots of arms were necessary on every estate, and the scene was totally reversed. Nor was their religious then inferior to their civil state. When the English took possession of Grenada, where his property lay, they found them baptized and instructed in the principles of the Roman Catholic faith. The priests of that persuasion had indeed been indefatigable in their vocation; so that imported Africans generally obtained within twelve months a tolerable idea of their religious duties. He had seen the slaves there go through the public mass in a manner, and with a fervency, which would have done credit to more civilized societies. But the case was now altered; for, except where the Moravians had been, there was no trace in our islands of an attention to their religious interests.

It had been said that their punishments were severe. There might be instances of cruelty, but these were not general. Many of them were undoubtedly ill disposed; though not more, according to their number on a plantation, than in a regiment, or in a ship's crew. Had we never heard of seamen being flogged from ship to ship, or of soldiers dying in the very act of punishment? Had we not also heard, even in this country of boasted liberty of seamen being seized, and carried away, when returning from distant voyages, after an absence of many years; and this without even being allowed to see their wives aud families? As to distressed objects, he maintained that there was more wretchedness and poverty in St. Giles than in all the West Indian islands belonging to Great Britain.

He would now speak of the African and West Indian trades. The imports and exports of these amounted to upwards of ten millions annually; and they gave employment to three hundred thousand tons of shipping, and to about twenty-five thousand seamen. These trades had been sanctioned by our ancestors in parliament. The acts for this purpose might be classed under three heads. First, they were such as declared the colonies and the trade thereof