Since the year 1796, when it was to cease
by a resolution of Parliament, no less than three hundred and sixty
thousand Africans had been torn away from their native land. What an
accumulation was this to our former guilt!
General Gascoyne made two extraordinary assertions: First, that the
trade was defensible on Scriptural ground.--"Both thy bondmen and thy
bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen, that are
round about thee; of them shall you have bondmen and bondmaids. And thou
shalt take them as an heritance for thy children after thee to inherit
them for a possession; they shall be thy bondmen for ever." Secondly,
that the trade had been so advantageous to this country, that it would
have been advisable even to institute a new one, if the old had not
existed.
Mr. Wilberforce replied to General Gascoyne. He then took a view of the
speech of Lord Castlereagh, which he answered point by point. In the
course of his observations he showed that the system of duties
progressively increasing, as proposed by the noble lord, would be one of
the most effectual modes of perpetuating the Slave Trade. He exposed,
also, the false foundation of the hope of any reliance on the
co-operation of the colonists.
Pages:
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959