totally repugnant to
the principles of the British constitution.

Colonel Phipps followed Lord Carysfort. He denied that this was a
question in which the rights of humanity and the laws of nature were
concerned. The Africans became slaves in consequence of the constitution
of their own governments. These were founded in absolute despotism.
Every subject was an actual slave. The inhabitants were slaves to the
great men, and the great men were slaves to the prince. Prisoners of
war, too, were by law subject to slavery. Such being the case, he saw no
more cruelty in disposing of them to our merchants, than to those of any
other nation. Criminals, also, in cases of adultery and witchcraft,
became slaves by the same laws.

It had been said, that there were no regulations in the West Indies for
the protection of slaves. There were several; though he was ready to
admit that more were necessary; and he would go in this respect as far
as humanity might require. He had passed ten months in Jamaica, where he
had never seen any such acts of cruelty as had been talked of. Those
which he had seen were not exercised by the Whites, but by the Blacks.
The dreadful stories which had been told, ought no more to fix a general
stigma upon the planters, than the story of Mrs. Brownrigg to stamp this
polished metropolis with the general brand of murder. There was once a
haberdasher's wife (Mrs. Nairne) who locked up her apprentice girl, and
starved her to death; but did ever any body think of abolishing
haberdashery on this account? He was persuaded the Negroes in the West
Indies were cheerful and happy. They were fond of ornaments; but it was
not the characteristic of miserable persons to show a taste for finery.
Such a taste, on the contrary, implied a cheerful and contented mind. He
was sorry to differ from his friend Mr. Wilberforce, but he must oppose
his motion.

Mr. Pitt rose, and said, that from the first hour of his having had the
honour to sit in parliament down to the present, among all the
questions, whether political or personal, in which it had been his
fortune to take a share, there had never been one in which his heart was
so deeply interested as in the present; both, on account of the serious
principles it involved, and the consequences connected with it.

The present was not a mere question of feeling. The argument, which
ought, in his opinion, to determine the committee, was, that the Slave
Trade was unjust. It was, th