This was the moment to be
taken to introduce it; nor did he think that they ought to be deterred
from doing it by any supposed clamours from some of the towns in France.
The great body of the people admired the constitution, and would support
any decisions which were made in strict conformity to its principles.
With respect to any committee of inquiry, he deprecated it. The Slave
Trade, he said, was not a trade. It dishonoured the name of commerce. It
was piracy. But if so, the question which it involved was a question of
justice only; and it could not be decided, with propriety by any other
standard." I then informed him that the Comte de Mirabeau had undertaken
to introduce it into the Assembly. At this he expressed his uneasiness.
"Mirabeau," says he, "is a host in himself; and I should not be
surprised if by his own eloquence and popularity only he were to carry
it; and yet I regret that he has taken the lead in it. The cause is so
lovely that even ambition, abstractedly considered, is too impure to
take it under its protection, and not to sully it. It should have been
placed in the hands of the most virtuous man in France. This man is the
Duc de la Rochefoucauld. But you cannot alter things now.
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