then took a feeling view of
what would be the wretched state of the poor Africans on board, even if
the bill passed as it now stood; and conjured the house, if they would
not allow them more room, at least not to infringe upon that which had
been proposed.

Lord Belgrave (afterwards Grosvenor) animadverted with great ability
upon the cruelties of the trade, which he said had been fully proved at
the bar. He took notice of the extraordinary opposition which had been
made to the bill then before them, and which he believed every
gentleman, who had a proper feeling of humanity, would condemn. If the
present mode of carrying on the trade received the countenance of that
house, the poor unfortunate African would have occasion doubly to curse
his fate. He would not only curse the womb that brought him forth, but
the British nation also, whose diabolical avarice had made his cup of
misery still more bitter. He hoped that the members for Liverpool would
urge no further opposition to the bill, but that they would join with
the house in an effort to enlarge the empire of humanity; and that,
while they were stretching out the strong arm of justice to punish the
degraders of British honour and humanity in the East, they would with
equal spirit exert their powers to dispense the blessings of their
protection to those unhappy Africans, who were to serve them in the
West.

Mr. Beaufoy entered minutely into an examination of the information,
which had been given by the witnesses, and which afforded unanswerable
arguments for the passing of the bill. He showed the narrow space which
they themselves had been made to allow for the package of a human body,
and the ingenious measures they were obliged to resort to for stowing
this living cargo within the limits of the ship. He adverted next to the
case of Mr. Dalzell, and showed how one dismal fact after another, each
making against their own testimony, was extorted from him. He then went
to the trifling mortality said to be experienced in these voyages, upon
which subject he spoke in the following words: "Though the witnesses are
some of them interested in the trade, and all of them parties against
the bill, their confession is, that of the negroes of the windward
coast, who are men of the strongest constitution which Africa affords,
no less on an average than five in each hundred perish in the voyage,--a
voyage, it must be remembered but of six weeks. In a twelvemonth, then,
what must b