to inherit them for a possession;
they shall be thy bondmen for ever." Secondly, that the trade had been so
advantageous to this country, that it would have been advisable even to
institute a new one, if the old had not existed.

Mr. Wilberforce replied to General Gascoyne. He then took a view of the
speech of Lord Castlereagh, which he answered point by point. In the course
of his observations he showed, that the system of duties progressively
increasing, as proposed by the noble lord, would be one of the most
effectual modes of perpetuating the Slave-trade. He exposed also the false
foundation of the hope of any reliance on the cooperation of the colonists.
The House, he said, had on the motion of Mr. Ellis in the year 1797, prayed
His Majesty to consult with the colonial legislatures to take such
measures, as might conduce to the gradual abolition of the African
Slave-trade. This address was transmitted to them by Lord Melville. It was
received in some of the islands with a declaration, "that they possibly
might, in some instances, endeavour to improve the condition of their
slaves; but they should do this, not with any view to the abolition of the
Slave-trade; for they considered that trade as their birth-right, which
could not be taken from them; and that we should deceive ourselves by
supposing, that they would agree to such a measure." He desired to add to
this the declaration of General Prevost in his public letter from Dominica.
Did he not say, when asked what steps had been taken there in consequence
of the resolution of the House in 1797, "that the act of the legislature,
entitled an act for the encouragement, protection, and better government of
slaves, appeared to him to have been considered, from the day it was passed
until this hour, as a political measure to avert the interference of the
mother-country in the management of the slaves."

Sir William Yonge censured the harsh language of Sir Samuel Romilly, who
had applied the terms rapine, robbery, and murder to those, who were
connected with the Slave-trade. He considered the resolution of Mr. Fox as
a prelude to a bill for the abolition of that traffic, and this bill as a
prelude to emancipation, which would not only be dangerous in itself, but
would change the state of property in the islands.

Lord Henry Petty, after having commented on the speeches of Sir S. Romilly
and Lord Castlereagh, proceeded to state his own opinion on the trade;
which was, th