where she died.
The murderer, though tried, was acquitted by a jury of his peers, upon the
idea, that it was impossible a master could destroy his own property. This
was a notorious fact. It was published in the Jamaica Gazette; and it had
even happened since the question of the abolition had been started.

The only argument used against such cruelties, was the master's interest in
the slave. But he urged the common cruelty to horses, in which their
drivers had an actual interest with the drivers of men in the colonies, as
a proof that this was no security. He had never heard an instance of a
master being punished for the murder of his slave. The propagation of the
slaves was so far from being encouraged, that it was purposely checked,
because it was thought more profitable and less troublesome to buy a full
grown Negro, than to rear a child. He repeated that his interest might have
inclined him to the other side of the question; but he did not choose to
compromise between his interest and his duty; for, if he abandoned his
duty, he should not be happy in this world; nor should he deserve happiness
in the next.

Mr. Pitt rose, but he said it was only to move, seeing that justice could
not be done to the subject this evening, that the further consideration of
the question might be adjourned to the next.

Mr. Cawthorne and Colonel Tarleton both opposed this motion, and Colonel
Phipps and Lord Carhampton supported it.

Mr. Fox said, the opposition to the adjournment was uncandid and
unbecoming. They who opposed it well knew that the trade could not bear
discussion. Let it be discussed; and, although there were symptoms of
predetermination in some, the abolition of it must be carried. He would not
believe that there could be found in the House of Commons men of such hard
hearts and inaccessible understandings, as to vote an assent to its
continuance, and then go home to their families, satisfied with their vote,
after they had been once made acquainted with the subject.

Mr. Pitt agreed with Mr. Fox, that from a full discussion of the subject
there was every reason to augur, that the abolition would be adopted. Under
the imputations, with which this trade was loaded, gentlemen should
remember, they could not do justice to their own characters, unless they
stood up, and gave their reasons for opposing the abolition of it. It was
unusual also to force any question of such importance to so hasty a
decision. For his own par