Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/259

 to which he condemned his fellow-man for life. How dared he, then, to use this selfish plea of interest against the voice of the generous sympathies of his nature? But even upon this narrow ground the advocates for the traffic had been defeated. If the unhallowed argument of expediency was worth any thing when opposed to moral rectitude, or if it were to supercede the precepts of Christianity, where was a man to stop, or what line was he to draw? For any thing he knew, it might be physically true that human blood was the best manure for the land; but who ought to shed it on that account? True expediency, however, was, where it ever would be found, on the side of that system which was most merciful and just. He asked how it happened that sugar could be imported cheaper from the East Indies than from the West, notwithstanding the vast difference of the length of the voyages, but on account of the impolicy of slavery, or that it was made in the former case by the industry of free men, and in the latter by the languid drudgery of slaves.

As he had had occasion to advert to the eastern part of the world, he would make an observation upon an argument which had been collected from that quarter. The condition of the negroes in the West Indies had been lately compared with that of the Hindoos. But he would observe that the Hindoo, miserable as his hovel was, had sources of pride and happiness to which not only the West Indian slave, but even his master was a stranger. He was, to be sure, a peasant, and his industry was subservient to the gratifications of an European lord. But he was, in his own belief, vastly superior to him. He viewed him as one of the lowest cast. He would not, on any consideration, eat from the same plate. He would not suffer his son to marry the daughter of his master, even if she could bring him all the West Indies as her portion. He would observe, too, that the Hindoo peasant drank his water from his native well; that if his meal were scanty, he received it from the hand of her who was most dear to him; that when he labored, he labored for her and his offspring. His daily task being finished, he reposed with his family. No retrospect of the happiness of former days, compared with existing misery, disturbed his slumber; nor horrid dreams occasioned him to wake in agony at the dawn of day. No barbarous sounds of cracking whips reminded him that, with the form and image of a man, his destiny was that of the beast of tinfield. Let the advocates for the bloody traffic state what they had to set off on their side of the question against the comforts and independence of the man with whom they compared the slave.

The amendment was supported by Sir William Yonge, Sir William Pulteny. Colonel Tarleton, Mr. Gascoyne, C. Brook, and Hiley Addington. On dividing the house upon it, there appeared for it seventy-seven, but against it only seventy.

This defeat occasioned the severest disappointment. The committee instantly met, when sorrow was seen in the countenances of all present, but they determined to renew the contest with redoubled vigor at the next session. Just at this moment Mr. Clarkson joined them. Eight years of retirement had nearly restored him, and the first moment he found himself able to embark 16