He would inform him. It
would do away the infamous practices which took place in Africa; it
would put an end to the horrors of the passage; it would save many
thousands of our fellow-creatures from the miseries of eternal slavery;
it would oblige the planters to treat those better, who were already in
that unnatural state; it would increase the population of our islands;
it would give a death-blow to the diabolical calculations, whether it
was cheaper to work the Negroes to death and recruit the gangs by fresh
importations, or to work them moderately and to treat them kindly. He
knew of no event, which would be attended with so many blessings.
There was but one other matter, which he would notice. The noble baron
(Hawkesbury) had asserted, that all the horrors of St. Domingo were the
consequence of the speculative opinions which were current in a
neighbouring kingdom on the subject at liberty. They had, he said, no
such origin. They were owing to two causes; first, to the vast number of
Negroes recently imported into that island; and, secondly, to a
scandalous breach of faith by the French legislature. This legislature
held out the idea not only of the abolition of the Slave Trade, but also
of all slavery; but it broke its word.
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