they would
make Africa all the atonement in their power for the multifarious injuries
she had received at the hands of British subjects. With respect to these
injuries, their enormity and extent, it might be alleged in their excuse,
that they were not fully acquainted with them till that moment, and
therefore not answerable for their former existence: but now they could no
longer plead ignorance concerning them. They had seen them brought directly
before their eyes, and they must decide for themselves, and must justify to
the world and their own consciences the facts and principles upon which
their decision was formed.

Mr. Wilberforce having concluded his speech, which lasted three hours and a
half, read, and laid on the table of the house, as subjects for their
future discussion, twelve propositions, which he had deduced from the
evidence contained in the privy council report, and of which the following
is the abridged substance:

1. That the number of slaves annually carried from the coast of Africa, in
British vessels, was about 38,000, of which, on an average, 22,500 were
carried to the British islands, and that of the latter only 17,500 were
retained there.

2. That these slaves, according to the evidence on the table, consisted,
First, of prisoners of war; Secondly, of free persons sold for debt, or on
account of real or imputed crimes, particularly adultery and witchcraft; in
which cases they were frequently sold with their whole families, and
sometimes for the profit of those by whom they were condemned; Thirdly, of
domestic slaves sold for the profit of their masters, in some places at the
will of the masters, and in others, on being condemned by them for real or
imputed crimes; Fourthly, of persons made slaves by various acts of
oppression, violence, or fraud, committed either by the princes and chiefs
of those countries on their subjects, or by private individuals on each
other;--or, lastly, by Europeans engaged in this traffic.

3. That the trade so carried on had necessarily a tendency to occasion
frequent and cruel wars among the natives; to produce unjust convictions
and punishments for pretended or aggravated crimes; to encourage acts of
oppression, violence, and fraud, and to obstruct the natural course of
civilization and improvement in those countries.

4. That Africa in its present state furnished several valuable articles of
commerce which were partly peculiar to itself, but that it was adapte