The African trader,
the planter, and the West India merchant, have united their forces to
defend the fortress, in which their supposed treasures lie. Vague
calculations and false alarms have been thrown out to the public, in
order to show that the constitution, and even the existence, of this
free and opulent nation depend on its depriving the inhabitants of a
foreign country of those rights and of that liberty which we ourselves
so highly and so justly prize. Surely, in the nature of things, and in
the order of Providence, it cannot be so. England existed as a great
nation long before the African commerce was known amongst us, and it is
not to acts of injustice and violence that she owes her present rank in
the scale of nations."
CHAPTER XXVI.
[Sidenote:--Continuation from July, 1790, to July, 1791.--Author travels
again throughout the kingdom; object of his journey.--Motion in the
House of Commons to resume the hearing of evidence in favour of the
abolition; list of all those examined on this side of the question;
machinations of interested persons, and cruel circumstances of the times
previously to the day of decision.--Motion at length made for stopping
all further importation of Slaves from Africa; debates upon it; motion
lost.
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