eyed away from their country by the owners of British
vessels. The question then was, which way the latter came by them. In
answer to this question, the privy council report, which was then on the
table, afforded evidence the most satisfactory and conclusive. He had
found things in it, which had confirmed every proposition he had
maintained before, whether this proposition had been gathered from
living information of the best authority, or from the histories he had
read. But it was unnecessary either to quote the report, or to appeal to
history on this occasion. Plain reason and common sense would point out
how the poor Africans were obtained. Africa was a country divided into
many kingdoms, which had different governments and laws. In many parts
the princes were despotic. In others they had a limited rule. But in all
of them, whatever the nature of the government was, men were considered
as goods and property, and, as such, subject to plunder in the same
manner as property in other countries. The persons in power there were
naturally fond of our commodities; and to obtain them, (which could only
be done by the sale of their countrymen,) they waged war on one another,
or even ravaged their own country, when they could find no pretence for
quarrelling with their neighbours: in their courts of law many poor
wretches, who were innocent, were condemned; and to obtain these
commodities in greater abundance, thousands were kidnapped and torn from
their families, and sent into slavery. Such transactions, he said, were
recorded in every history of Africa, and the report on the table
confirmed them. With respect, however, to these he should make but one
or two observations. If we looked into the reign of Henry the Eighth, we
should find a parallel for one of them. We should find that similar
convictions took place; and that penalties followed conviction. With
respect to wars, the kings of Africa were never induced to engage in
them by public principles, by national glory, and least of all by the
love of their people. This had been stated by those most conversant in
the subject, by Dr. Spaarman and Mr. Wadstrom. They had conversed with
these princes, and had learned from their own mouths that to procure
slaves was the object of their hostilities. Indeed, there was scarcely a
single person examined before the privy council who did not prove that
the Slave Trade was the source of the tragedies acted upon that
extensive continent. Som