ould,
who would believe that the British captains would be influenced by any
regulations; made in this country, to refuse to purchase those who had
not been fairly, honestly? and uprightly enslaved? They who were offered
to us for sale, were brought, some of them, three or four thousand
miles, and exchanged like cattle from one hand to another, till they
reached the coast. But who could return these to their homes, or make
them compensation for their sufferings during their long journeyings? He
would now conclude by begging pardon of the House for having detained
them so long. He could indeed have expressed his own conviction in fewer
words. He needed only to have made one or two short statements, and to
have quoted the commandment, "Thou shalt do no murder." But he thought
it his duty to lay the whole of the case, and the whole of its guilt,
before them. They would see now that no mitigations, no palliatives,
would either be efficient or admissible. Nothing short of an absolute
abolition could be adopted. This they owed to Africa: they owed it, too,
to their own moral characters. And he hoped they would follow up the
principle of one of the repentant African captains, who had gone before
the committee of privy council as a voluntary witness, and that they
would make Africa all the atonement in their power for the multifarious
injuries she had received at the hands of British subjects. With respect
to these injuries, their enormity and extent, it might be alleged in
their excuse, that they were not fully acquainted with them till that
moment, and therefore not answerable for their former existence: but now
they could no longer plead ignorance concerning them. They had seen them
brought directly before their eyes, and they must decide for themselves,
and must justify to the world and their own consciences the facts and
principles upon which their decision was formed.

Mr. Wilberforce having concluded his speech, which lasted three hours
and a half, read, and laid on the table of the House, as subjects for
their future discussion, twelve propositions which he had deduced from
the evidence contained in the privy council report, and of which the
following is the abridged substance:--

1. That the number of slaves annually carried from the coast of Africa,
in British vessels, was about 38,000, of which, on an average, 22,500
were carried to the British islands, and that of the latter only 17,500
were retained there.

2. T