lands could keep up
their present stocks. It had been asserted that they could. But he,
thought that the stopping of the imputations could not be depended upon
for this purpose, so much as a plan for providing them with more
females.

With the mode suggested by his right honourable friend, Mr. Dundas, he
was pleased, though he, did not wholly agree to it. He could not grant
liberty to the children born in the islands. He thought, also, that the
trade ought to be permitted for ten or twelve years longer, under such
arrangements as should introduce a kind of management among the slaves
there, favourable to their interests, and of course to their future
happiness. One species of regulation which he should propose, would be
greater encouragement to the importation of females than of males, by
means of a bounty on the former till their numbers should be found
equal. Rewards also might be given to those slaves who should raise a
certain number of children; and to those who should devise means of
lightening negro-labour. If the plan of his honourable friend should
comprehend these regulations, he would heartily concur in it. He wished
to see the Slave Trade abolished. Indeed it did not deserve the name of
a trade. It was not a trade, and ought not to be allowed. He was
satisfied, that in a few years it would cease to be the reproach of this
nation and the torment of Africa. But under regulations like these, it
would cease without any material injury to the interests of others.

Mr. Fox said, that after what had fallen from the two last speakers, he
could remain no longer silent. Something so mischievous had come out,
and something so like a foundation had been laid for preserving, not
only for years to come, but for ever, this detestable traffic, that he
should feel himself wanting in his duty, if he were not to deprecate all
such deceptions and delusions upon the country.

The honourable gentlemen had called themselves moderate men: but upon
this subject he neither felt, nor desired to feel, anything like a
sentiment of moderation. Their speeches had reminded him of a passage in
MIDDLETON'S _Life of Cicero_. The translation of it was defective,
though it would equally suit his purpose. He says, "To enter into a
man's house, and kill him, his wife, and family, in the night, is
certainly a most heinous crime, and deserving of death; but to break
open his house, to murder him, his wife, and all his children in the
night, may