slavery of
ancient Rome and Greece, assert, that in the course of his whole
reading, however profound it might have been, he had found anything
resembling such a traffic? Where did it appear in history, that ships
were regularly fitted out to fetch away tens of thousands of persons
annually, against their will, from their native land; that these were
subject to personal indignities and arbitrary punishments during their
transportation; and that a certain proportion of them, owing to
suffocation and other cruel causes, uniformly perished? He averred, that
nothing like the African Slave Trade was ever practised in any nation
upon earth.

If the trade then was repugnant, as he maintained it was, to justice and
humanity, he did not see how, without aiding and abetting injustice and
inhumanity, any man could sanction it: and he thought that the noble
baron (Hawkesbury) was peculiarly bound to support the resolution; for
he had admitted that if it could be shown, that the trade was contrary
to these principles, the question would be at an end. Now this
contrariety had been made apparent, and his lordship had not even
attempted to refute it.

He would say but little on the subject of revealed religion, as it
related to this question, because the reverend prelate, near him, had
spoken so fully upon it. He might observe, however, that at the end of
the sixth year, when the Hebrew slave was emancipated, he was to be
furnished liberally from the flock, the floor, and the wine-press of his
master.

Lord Holland lamented the unfaithfulness of the noble baron (Hawkesbury)
to his own principles, and the inflexible opposition of the noble earl
(Westmoreland), from both which circumstances he despaired for ever of
any assistance from them to this glorious cause. The latter wished to
hear evidence on the subject, for the purpose, doubtless, of delay. He
was sure, that the noble earl did not care what the evidence would say
on either side; for his mind was made up, that the trade ought not to be
abolished.

The noble earl had made a difference between humanity, justice, and
sound policy. God forbid, that we should ever admit such distinctions in
this country! But he had gone further, and said, that a thing might be
inhuman, and yet not unjust; and he put the case of the execution of a
criminal in support of it. Did he not by this position confound all
notions of right and wrong in human institutions? When a criminal was
justly exec