Then might be applied to Africa those words, originally used indeed with
a different view:
His demum exactis------
Devenere locos laetos, et amoena vireta
Fortunatorum nemorum, sedesque beatas;
Largior hic campos aether et lumine vestit
Purpureo.
It was in this view--it was as an atonement for our long and cruel
injustice towards Africa, that the measure proposed by his honourable
friend Mr. Wilberforce most forcibly recommended itself to his mind. The
great and happy change to be expected in the state of her inhabitants
was, of all the various benefits of the abolition, in his estimation the
most extensive and important. He should vote against the adjournment;
and he should also oppose every proposition which tended either to
prevent, or even to postpone for an hour, the total abolition of the
Slave Trade.
Mr. Pitt having concluded his speech (at about six in the morning), Sir
William Dolben, the chairman, proposed the following questions:--The
first was on the motion of Mr. Jenkinson, "that the chairman do now
leave the chair." This was lost by a majority of two hundred and
thirty-four to eighty-seven. The second was on the motion of Mr.
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