ed the Africans from what we were pleased to call
their wretched situation in their own; country, and then we took credit
for our humanity; because, after having killed one half of them in the
seasoning, we substituted what we were again pleased to call a better
treatment than that which they would have experienced at home.

It had been stated that the principle of war among savages was a general
massacre. This was not true. They frequently adopted the captives into
their own families; and, so far from massacring the women and children,
they often gave them the protection which the weakness of their age and
sex demanded.

There could be no doubt, that the practice of kidnapping; prevailed in
Africa. As to witchcraft, it had been made a crime in the reign of James
the First in this country, for the purpose of informations; and how much
more likely were informations to take place in Africa, under the
encouragement afforded by the Slave Trade! This trade, it had been said,
was sanctioned by twenty-six acts of parliament. He did not doubt but
fifty-six might be found, by which parliament had sanctioned witchcraft
of the existence of which we had now no belief whatever....

It had been said by Mr. Stanley that the pulpit had been used as an
instrument of attack on the Slave Trade. He was happy to learn it had
been so well employed; and he hoped the Bishops would rise up in the
House of Lords, with the virtuous indignation which became them, to
abolish a traffic so contrary to humanity, justice, and religion.

He entreated every member to recollect, that on his vote that night
depended the happiness of millions; and that it was then in his power to
promote a measure, of which the benefits would be felt over one whole
quarter of the globe; that the seeds of civilization might, by the
present bill, be sown all over Africa: and the first principles of
humanity be established in regions where they had hitherto been excluded
by the existence of this execrable trade.

Lord Carysfort rose, and said, that the great cause of the abolition had
flourished by the manner in which it had been opposed. No one argument
of solid weight had been adduced against it. It had been shown, but
never disproved, that the colonial laws were inadequate to the
protection of the slaves; that the punishments of the latter were most
unmerciful; that they were deprived of the right of self-defence against
any White man; and, in short, that the system was