t be classed under
three heads. First, they were such as declared the colonies and the trade
thereof advantageous to Great Britain, and therefore entitled to her
protection. Secondly, such as authorised, protected, and encouraged the
trade to Africa, as advantageous in itself, and necessary to the welfare
and existence of the sugar colonies: and, Thirdly, such as promoted and
secured loans of money to the proprietors of the said colonies, either from
British subjects or from foreigners. These acts[A], he apprehended, ought
to satisfy every person of the legality and usefulness of these trades.
They were enacted in reigns distinguished for the production of great and
enlightened characters. We heard then of no wild and destructive doctrines
like the present. These were reserved for this age of novelty and
innovation. But he must remind the House, that the inhabitants of our
islands had as good a right to the protection of their property, as the
inhabitants of Great Britain. Nor could it be diminished in any shape
without full compensation. The proprietors of lands in the ceded islands,
which were purchased of government under specific conditions of settlement,
ought to be indemnified. They also (of whom he was one) who had purchased
the territory granted by the crown to General Monkton in the Island of St.
Vincent, ought to be indemnified also. The sale of this had gone on
briskly, till it was known, that a plan was in agitation for the abolition
of the Slave-trade. Since that period the original purchasers had done
little or nothing, and they had many hundred acres on hand, which would be
of no value, if the present question was carried. In fact, they had a right
to compensation. The planters generally spent their estates in this
country. They generally educated their children in it. They had never been
found seditious or rebellious; and they demanded of the Parliament of Great
Britain that protection, which, upon the principles of good faith, it was
in duty bound to afford them in common with the rest of his majesty's loyal
subjects.

[Footnote A: Here he quoted them specifically.]

Mr. Vaughan stated that, being a West Indian by birth and connected with
the islands, he could speak from his own knowledge. In the early part of
his life he was strongly in favour of the abolition of the Slave-trade. He
had been educated by Dr. Priestley and the father of Mrs. Barbauld; who
were both of them friends to that question. Their