It was highly becoming Great Britain
to take the lead of other nations in such a virtuous and magnificent
measure, and he could not but have confidence that they would he
inclined to share the honour with us, or be pleased to follow us as
their example. If we were disposed to set about this glorious work in
earnest, they might he invited to concur with us by a negotiation to be
immediately opened for that purpose. He would only now observe, before
he sat down, in answer to certain ideas thrown out, that he could by no
means acquiesce in any compensation for losses which might be sustained
by the people of Liverpool or by others in any other part of the
kingdom, in the execution of this just and necessary undertaking.
Sir William Yonge said, he wanted no inducement to concur with the
honourable mover of the propositions, provided the latter could be
fairly established, and no serious mischiefs were to arise from the
abolition. But he was apprehensive, that many evils might follow in the
case of any sudden or unlooked-for decrease in the slaves. They might be
destroyed by hurricanes. They might be swept off by many fatal
disorders. In these cases, the owners of them would not be able to fill
up their places, and they who had lent money upon the lands, where the
losses had happened, would foreclose their mortgages.
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