On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
craft in general ) is a manifest pretext , and a mockery of all human reason . Bat , supposing them even to be real crimes , and such as men should be condemned for , * can there be any thing more degrading to sense , or disgusting to humanity ,
than to think it honourable or justifiable in Great Britain , annually to send out ships in order to assist in the purposes of African police ? It has , I am told , been asserted , by an authority in the other House of Parliament , that the trade is in itself so
good a one , that if it was not found already subsisting , it would be right to create it . I certainly will not compare the authority just alluded to with that of my honourable friend ( Mr . Wilberforce ) , who , in the efforts he has made in order to abolish
this dishonourable traffic , has done himself so much honour . I will not compare that authority with the authority of a right honourable gentleman now no more ( Mr . Pitt ) , whose talents have always so justly been entitled to admiration , and whose
eloquence was never more powerfully displayed on any occasion than in opposition to this scandalous traffic . 1 will not compare it with that of a noble viscount ( Sidmouth ) , one of your predecessors , but not your immediate one , in that chair , than whom , though he opposed the manner in which we wished to obtain
an abolition , yet as to the principle , no man ever enforced more strongly or with more feeling his utter detestation of it . Another noble lord ^ ilso ^ Lord Me lville ) , who took a lead in constantly opposing our attempts at
a total and immediate abolition , yet in regard to the principle , when he prevailed in his measure of gradual abolition , recorded his opinion on the journals , by moving , that the House considered the slave trade to be
adverse to policy , humanity and justice I . do not , therefore , suppose , that there can be above one , or perhaps two members in this House , who can object to a condemnation of the
nature of the trade , and shall now proceed to recall the attention of the House to what has been its uniform , consistent and unchangeable p pinion for the last eighteen years , 4 « iringr which we should blush to
Untitled Article
have it stated , that not one step has yet been taken towards the abolition of the trade . If , then , we have never ceased to express our reprobation , surely the House must think itself bound by its character , and the consistency of its proceedings , to condemn it now . The first time this
measure was proposed , on the motion of my honourable friend , which was in the year 179 U it was , after a long and warm discussion , rejected . In the following year , 17 9 2 , after the question had been , during the interval , better considered , there appeared to be a very strong disposition
generally , to adopt it to the full 5 but in the committee , the question for a gradual abolition was carried . On that occasion , when the most strenuous efforts were made to specify the time when the total abolition should take place , there were several divisions in the House about the
number of years , and Lord Melville , who was the leader and proposer of the gradual abolition , could not ven ture to push the period longer than eight years , or the year 1800 , when it was to be totally abolished . Yet
we are now in the year 1806 , and while surrounding nations are reproaching us with neglect , not a single step has Ijeen taken towards this just , humane and politic measure ! When the question for a gradual abolition was carried , there was no
one could suppose that the trade would last so long : and in the mean time , we have suffered other nations to take the * lead of us . Denmark , much to its honour , has abolished
the trade ; or , if it could not abolisti " it altogether , has at least done all it could , for it has prohibited its being carried on in Danish ships or by Danish sailors . 1 own , that when I
began to consider the subject , early in the present session , my opinion was , that the total abolition might be carried this year ; but subsequent business intervened , occasioned by the discussions of the military plan ; besides which , there was an abolition
going forward in the foreign trade , from our colonies , and it was thought right to carry that measure through , before we proceeded to the other . That bill has passed into a law , and so far we have already succeeded ; but it i *» too late to carry the measure
Untitled Article
Charles James Fox . 7 & $
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1815, page 735, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1767/page/7/
-