Mr. Pitt thanked his honourable friend Mr. Wilberforce for having at
length introduced this great and important subject to the consideration
of the House. He thanked him also for the perspicuous, forcible, and
masterly manner in which he had treated it. He was sure that no argument
compatible with any idea of justice could be assigned for the
continuation of the Slave Trade. And at the same time that he was
willing to listen with candour and attention to everything that could be
urged on the other side of the question, he was sure that the
principles, from which his opinion was deduced, were unalterable. He had
examined the subject with the anxiety which became him, where the
happiness and interests of so many thousands were concerned, and with
the minuteness which would be expected of him, on account of, the
responsible situation which he held; and he averred that it was
sophistry, obscurity of ideas, and vagueness of reasoning, which alone
could have hitherto prevented all mankind (those immediately interested
in the question excepted) from agreeing in one and the same opinion upon
the subject. With respect to the propriety of introducing the individual
propositions which had been offered, he differed with Mr.
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