This miserable
argument, if persevered in, would be an eternal bar to the annihilation
of the evil. How was it ever to be eradicated, if every nation was thus
prudentially to wait till the concurrence of all the world should be
obtained! But it applied a thousand times more strongly in a contrary
way. How much more justly would other nations say, "Great Britain, free
as she is, just and honourable as she is, not only has not abolished,
but has refused to abolish, the Slave Trade. She has investigated it
well. Her senate has deliberated upon it. It is plain, then, that she
sees no guilt in it." With this argument we should furnish the other
nations of Europe, if we were again to refuse to put an end to this
cruel traffic; and we should have from henceforth not only to answer for
our own, but for their crimes also. Already we have suffered one year to
pass away; and now, when the question was renewed, not only had this
wretched argument been revived, but a proposition had been made for the
gradual abolition of the trade. He knew, indeed, the difficulty of
reforming long established abuses; but in the present case, by proposing
some other period than the present, by prescribing some condition, by
waiting for some contingencies, perhaps till we obtained the general
concurrence of Europe, (A concurrence which he believe never yet took
place at the commencement of any one improvement in policy or morals,)
he fared that this most enormous evil would never be redressed.
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