e for the tardy kindness (if kindness it could be
called) of no longer hindering her from extricating herself out of the
darkness, which, in other more fortunate regions, had been so much more
speedily dispelled.

--------Nos primus equis Oriens afflavit anhelis;
Illic sera rubens accendit lumina Vesper.

Then might be applied to Africa those words, originally used indeed with
a different view:

His demum exactis------
Devenere locos laetos, et amoena vireta
Fortunatorum nemorum, sedesque beatas;
Largior hic campos aether et lumine vestit
Purpureo.

It was in this view--it was as an atonement for our long and cruel
injustice towards Africa, that the measure proposed by his honourable
friend Mr. Wilberforce most forcibly recommended itself to his mind. The
great and happy change to be expected in the state of her inhabitants
was, of all the various benefits of the abolition, in his estimation the
most extensive and important. He should vote against the adjournment;
and he should also oppose every proposition which tended either to
prevent, or even to postpone for an hour, the total abolition of the
Slave Trade.

Mr. Pitt having concluded his speech (at about six in the morning), Sir
William Dolben, the chairman, proposed the following questions:--The
first was on the motion of Mr. Jenkinson, "that the chairman do now
leave the chair." This was lost by a majority of two hundred and
thirty-four to eighty-seven. The second was on the motion of Mr. Dundas,
"that the abolition should be, gradual;" when the votes for gradual
exceeded those for immediate by one hundred and ninety-three to one
hundred and twenty-five. He then put the amended question, that "it was
the opinion of the committee that the trade ought to be gradually
abolished." The committee having divided again, the votes for a gradual
abolition were, two hundred and thirty, and those against any abolition
were eighty-five.

After this debate, the committee for the abolition of the Slave Trade
held a meeting. They voted their thanks to Mr. Wilberforce for his
motion, and to Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, and those other members of the House
who had supported it. They resolved, also, that the House of Commons,
having determined that the Slave Trade ought to be gradually abolished,
had by that decision manifested their opinion, that it was cruel and
unjust. They resolved, also, that a gradual abolition of it was not an