He protested against a
debate, in which he could trace nothing like reason; but, on the
contrary, downright phrensy, raised perhaps by the most extraordinary
eloquence. The abolition, as proposed, was impracticable. He denied the
right of the legislature to pass a law for it. He warned the Chancellor
of the Exchequer to beware of the day, on which the bill should pass, as
the worst he had ever seen.
Mr. Milnes declared, that he adopted all those expressions against the
Slave Trade, which had been thought so harsh; and that the opinion of
the noble lord had been turned in consequence of having become one of
the members for Bristol. He quoted a passage from Lord Sheffield's
pamphlet; and insisted that the separation of families in the West
Indies, there complained of by himself, ought to have compelled him to
take the contrary side of the question.
Mr. Wilberforce made a short reply to some arguments in the course of
the debate; after which, at half-past three in the morning, the House
divided. There appeared for Mr. Wilberforce's motion eighty-eight, and
against it one hundred and sixty-three; so that it was lost by a
majority of seventy-five votes.
By this unfavourable division the great contest, in which we had been so
long engaged, was decided.
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