edium. The legislature must either abolish it, or plead guilty of
all the wickedness which had been shown to attend it. He would now say a
word or two with respect to the conduct of foreign nations on this
subject. It was possible that these, when they heard that the matter had
been discussed in that House, might follow the example, or they might go
before us and set one themselves. If this were to happen, though we
might be the losers, humanity would be the gainer. He himself had been
thought sometimes to use expressions relative to France, which were too
harsh, and as if he could only treat her as the enemy of this country.
Politically speaking, France was our rival. But he well knew the
distinction between political enmity and illiberal prejudice. If there
was any great and enlightened nation in Europe, it was France, which was
as likely as any country upon the face of the globe to catch a spark
from the light of our fire, and to act upon the present subject with
warmth and enthusiasm. France had often been improperly stimulated by
her ambition; and he had no doubt but that, in the present instance, she
would readily follow its honourable dictates.

Mr. (afterwards Lord) Grenville would not detain the house by going into
a question which had been so ably argued; but he should not do justice
to his feelings, if he did not express publicly to his honourable
friend, Mr. Wilberforce, the pleasure he had received from one of the
most masterly and eloquent speeches he had ever heard; a speech which,
while it did honour to him, entitled him to the thanks of the House, of
the people of England, of all Europe, and of the latest posterity. He
approved of the propositions as the best mode of bringing this great
question to a happy issue. He was pleased, also, with the language which
had been held out with respect to foreign nations, and with our
determination to assert our right of preventing our colonies from
carrying on any trade which we had thought it our duty to abandon.

Aldermen Newnham, Sawbridge, and Watson, though they wished well to the
cause of humanity, could not, as representatives of the city of London,
give their concurrence to a measure which would injure it so essentially
as the abolition of the Slave Trade. This trade might undoubtedly be put
under wholesome regulations, and made productive of great commercial
advantages; but, if it were abolished, it would render the city of
London one scene of bankruptcy an