Indeed, if emancipation would follow
the abolition, he should like the latter measure the better. Rapine,
robbery, and murder, were the true characteristics of this traffic. The
same epithets had not indeed been applied to slavery, because this was a
condition, in which some part of the human race had been at every period
of the history of the world. It was, however, a state, which ought not
to be allowed to exist. But, notwithstanding all these confessions, he
should weigh well the consequences of the abolition before he gave it
his support. It would be, on a balance between the evils themselves and
the consequences of removing them, that he should decide for himself on
this question.
Mr. Fox took a view of all the arguments, which had been advanced by the
opponents of the abolition; and having given an appropriate answer to
each, the House divided, when there appeared for the resolution one
hundred and fourteen, and against it but fifteen.
Immediately after this division, Mr. Wilberforce moved an address to His
Majesty, "praying that he would be graciously pleased to direct a
negotiation to be entered into, by which foreign powers should be
invited to co-operate with His Majesty in measures to be adopted for the
abolition of the African Slave Trade.
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