of all countries
and of all ages,--these things, and (what was still more extraordinary)
even the possibility of them, were denied by those, who had been brought
forward on the other side of the question. These, however, were chiefly
persons, who had been trading governors of forts in Africa; or who had long
commanded ships in the Slave-trade. As soon as he knew the sort of
witnesses which was to be called against him, he had been prepared to
expect much prejudice. But his expectations had been greatly surpassed by
the testimony they had given. He did not mean to impeach their private
characters, but they certainly showed themselves under the influence of
such gross prejudices, as to render them incompetent judges of the subject
they came to elucidate. They seemed (if he might so say) to be enveloped by
a certain atmosphere of their own; and to see, as it were, through a kind
of African medium. Every object, which met their eyes, came distorted and
turned from its true direction. Even the declarations, which they made on
other occasions, seemed wholly strange to them. They sometimes not only
forgot what they had seen, but what they had said; and when to one of them
his own testimony to the privy council was read, he mistook it for that of
another, whose evidence he declared to be "the merest burlesque in the
world."

But the House must be aware that there was not only an African medium, but
an African logic. It seemed to be an acknowledged axiom in this; that every
person, who offered a slave for sale, had a right to sell him, however
fraudulently he might have obtained him. This had been proved by the
witnesses, who opposed him. "It would have stopped my trade," said one of
them, "to have asked the broker, how he came by the person he was offering
me for sale"--"We always suppose," said another, "the broker has a right to
sell the person he offers us"--"I never heard of such a question being
asked," said a third; "a man would be thought a fool, who should put such a
question."--He hoped the House would see the practical utility of this
logic. It was the key-stone, which held the building together. By means of
it, slave-captains might traverse the whole coast of Africa, and see
nothing but equitable practices. They could not, however, be wholly
absolved, even if they availed themselves of this principle to its fullest
extent; for they had often committed depredations themselves; especially
when they were passing by any