get other nations to concur in the measure; and even if they were to
concur, it could not be effected. We might restrain the subjects of the
parent-state from following the trade; but we could not those in our
colonies. A hundred frauds would be committed by these, which we could
not detect. He did not mean by this, that the evil was to go on for
ever. Had a wise plan been proposed at first, it might have been
half-cured by this time. The present resolution would do no good. It was
vague, indefinite, and unintelligible. Such resolutions were only the
slave-merchants' harvests. They would go for more slaves than usual in
the interim. He should have advised a system of duties on fresh
importations of slaves, progressively increasing to a certain extent;
and that the amount of these duties should be given to the planters, as
a bounty to encourage the Negro population upon their estates. Nothing
could be done, unless we went hand in hand with the latter. But he
should deliver himself more fully on this subject, when any thing
specific should be brought forward in the shape of a bill.

Sir S. Romilly, the Solicitor-General, differed from Lord Castlereagh;
for he thought the resolution of Mr. Fox was very simple and
intelligible. If there was a proposition vague and indefinite, it was
that advanced by the noble lord, of a system of duties on fresh
importations, rising progressively, and this under the patronage and
co-operation of the planters. Who could measure the space between the
present time and the abolition of the trade, if that measure were to
depend upon the approbation of the colonies.

The cruelty and injustice of the Slave Trade had been established by
evidence beyond a doubt. It had been shown to be carried on by rapine,
robbery, and murder; by fomenting and encouraging wars; by false
accusations; and imaginary crimes. The unhappy victims were torn away
not only in the time of war, but of profound peace. They were then
carried across the Atlantic, in a manner too horrible to describe; and
afterwards subjected to eternal slavery. In support of the continuance
of such a traffic, he knew of nothing but assertions already disproved,
and arguments already refuted. Since the year 1796, when it was to cease
by a resolution of Parliament, no less than three hundred and sixty
thousand Africans had been torn away from their native land. What an
accumulation was this to our former guilt!

General Gascoyne made two extrao