simplicity, of the subject; but he could not
longer be silent, when he observed those arguments of policy creeping
again out of their lurking-places, which had fled before eloquence and
truth. The House had clearly given up the policy of the question. They
had been determined by the justice of it. Why were they then to be
troubled again with arguments of this nature? These, if admitted, would
go to the subversion of all public as well as private morality. Nations
were as much bound as individuals to a system of morals, though a breach
in the former could not be so easily punished. In private life morality
took pretty good care of itself. It was a kind of retail article, in
which the returns were speedy. If a man broke open his neighbour's
house, he would feel the consequences. There was an ally of virtue, who
rendered it the interest of individuals to be moral, and he was called
the executioner. But as such punishment did not always await us in our
national concerns, we should substitute honour as the guardian of our
national conduct. He hoped the West Indians would consider the character
of the mother-country, and the obligations to national as well as
individual justice. He hoped, also, they would consider the sufferings,
which they occasioned both in Africa, in the passage, and in the West
Indies. In the passage, indeed, no one was capable of describing them.
The section of the slave-ship; however, made up the deficiency of
language, and did away all necessity of argument, on this subject.
Disease there had to struggle with the new affliction of chains and
punishment. At one view were the irksomeness of a goal, and the miseries
of an hospital; so that the holds of these vessels put him in mind of
the regions of the damned. The trade, he said, ought immediately to be
abolished. On a comparison of the probable consequences of the abolition
of it, he saw on one side only doubtful contingencies, but on the other
shame and disgrace.

Sir James Johnstone contended for the immediate abolition of the trade.
He had introduced the plough into his own plantation in the West Indies,
and he found the land produced more sugar than when cultivated in the
ordinary way by slaves. Even for the sake of the planters, he hoped the
abolition would not be long delayed.

Mr. Dundas replied: after which a division took place. The number of
votes in favour of the original motion were one hundred and fifty-eight,
and for the amendment one h