He was fearful,
also, that a clandestine trade would be carried on, and then the
sufferings of the Africans, crammed up in small vessels, which would be
obliged to be hovering about from day to day, to watch an opportunity of
landing, would be ten times greater than any which they now experienced
in the legal trade. He was glad, however, as the matter was to be
discussed, that it had been brought forward in the shape of distinct
propositions, to be grounded upon the evidence in the privy council
report.
Mr. Fox observed that he did not like, where he agreed as to the
substance of a measure, to differ with respect to the form of it. If,
however, he differed in any thing in the present case, it was with a
view rather to forward the business than to injure it, or to throw
anything like an obstacle in its way. Nothing like either should come
from him. What he thought was, that all the propositions were not
necessary to be voted previously to the ultimate decision, though some
of them undoubtedly were. He considered them as of two classes: the one,
alleging the grounds upon which it was proper to proceed to the
abolition; such as that the trade was productive of inexpressible
misery, in various ways, to the innocent natives of Africa; that it was
the grave of our seamen, and so on; the other merely answering
objections which might be started, and where there might be a difference
of opinion.
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