s but a part of the subject; for surely the people of Africa were
not to be forgotten. He did not understand the practice of complimenting
the planters with the lives of men, women, and helpless children by
thousands for the sake of their pecuniary advantage; and they, who adopted
it, whatever they might think of the consistency of their own conduct,
offered an insult to the sacred names of humanity and justice.

The noble earl (Westmoreland) had asked what would be the practical effect
of the abolition of the Slave-trade. 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 Negros
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 of liberty. They had, he said, no such
origin. They were owing to two causes; first, to the vast number of Negros
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. It held forth the rights of man to the whole human race,
and then, in practice, it most infamously abandoned every article in these
rights; so that it became the scorn of all the enlightened and virtuous
part of mankind. These were the great causes of the miseries of St.
Domingo, and not the speculative opinions of France.

Earl Grosvenor could not but express the joy he felt at the hope, after all
his disappointments, that this wicked trade would be done away. He hoped
that His Majesty's ministers were in earnest, and that they would, early in
the next session, take this great question up with a determination to go
through with it; so that another year should not pass, befor