s was preferable to the purchase of
imported negroes, of whom one half very frequently died in the
seasoning.

He then argued the impossibility of beasts doing the work of the
plantations. He endeavoured to prove that the number of these adequate
to this purpose could not be supplied with food; and after having made
many other observations, which, on account of the lowness of his voice,
could not be heard, he concluded by objecting to the motion.

Mr. William Smith rose. He wondered how the last speaker could have had
the boldness to draw arguments from scripture in support of the Slave
Trade. Such arguments could be intended only to impose on those who
never took the trouble of thinking for themselves. Could it be thought
for a moment, that the good sense of the House could be misled by a few
perverted or misapplied passages, in direct opposition to the whole
tenor, and spirit of Christianity; to the theory, he might say, of
almost every religion, which had ever appeared in the world? Whatever
might have been advanced, every body must feel that the Slave Trade
could not exist an hour, if that excellent maxim, "to do to others as we
would wish that others should do to us," had its proper influence on the
conduct of men.

Nor was Mr. Stanley more happy in his argument of the antiquity and
universality of slavery. Because a practise had existed, did it
necessarily follow that it was just? By this argument every crime might
be defended from the time of Cain. The slaves of antiquity, however were
in a situation far preferable to that of the negroes in the West Indies.
A passage in Macrobius, which exemplified this in the strongest manner,
was now brought to his recollection. "Our ancestors," says Macrobius,
"denominated the master, father of the family, and the slave, domestic,
with the intention of removing all odium from the condition of the
master, and all contempt from that of the servant." Could this language
be applied to the present state of West India slavery?

It had been complained of by those who supported the trade, that they
laboured under great disadvantages by being obliged to contend against
the most splendid abilities which the House could boast. But he believed
they laboured under one, which was worse and for which no talents could
compensate; he meant the impossibility of maintaining their ground
fairly on any of those principles, which every man within those walls
had been accustomed, from his infanc