The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition - Thomas Clarkson
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Mr. Fox began by observing, that he had long taken an interest in this
great subject, which he had also minutely examined, and that it was his
intention to have brought something forward himself in parliament
respecting it; but when he heard that Mr. Wilberforce had resolved to
take it up, he was unaffectedly rejoiced, not only knowing the purity of
his principles and character, but because, from a variety of
considerations as to the situations in which different men stood in the
house, there was something that made him honestly think it was better
that the business should be in the hands of that gentleman than in his
own. Having premised this, he said that, as so many petitions, and these
signed by such numbers of persons of the most respectable character, had
been presented, he was sorry that it had been found impossible that the
subject of them could be taken up this year, and more particularly as he
was not able to see, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer had done, that
there were circumstances, which might happen by the next year, which
would make it more advisable and advantageous to take it up then, than
it would have been to enter upon it in the present session. For
certainly there could be no information laid before the house, through
the medium of the lords of the council, which could not more
advantageously have been obtained by themselves, had they instituted a
similar inquiry. It was their duty to advise the king, and not to ask
his advice. This the constitution had laid down as one of its most
essential principles; and though in the present instance he saw no cause
for blame, because he was persuaded His Majesty's Ministers had not
acted with any ill intention, it was still a principle never to be
departed from, because it never could be departed from without
establishing a precedent which might lead to very serious abuses. He
lamented that the privy council, who had received no petitions from the
people on the subject, should have instituted an inquiry, and that the
House of Commons, the table of which had been loaded with petitions from
various parts of the kingdom, should not have instituted any inquiry at
all. He hoped these petitions would have a fair discussion in that
house, independently of any information that could be given to it by His
Majesty's Ministers. He urged again the superior advantage of an inquiry
into such a subject carried on within those walls over any inquiry
carried on by the lords of the council. In inquiries carried on in that
house, they had the benefit of every circumstance of publicity; which
was a most material benefit indeed, and that which of all others made
the manner of conducting the parliamentary proceedings of Great Britain
the envy and the admiration of the world. An inquiry there was better
than an inquiry in any other place, however respectable the persons
before and by whom it was carried on. There, all that could be said for
the abolition or against it might be said. In that house every relative
fact would have been produced, no information would have been withheld,
no circumstance would have been omitted, which was necessary for
elucidation; nothing would have been kept back. He was sorry, therefore,
that the consideration of the question, but more particularly where so
much human suffering was concerned, should be put off to another
session, when it was obvious that no advantage could be gained by the
delay.
He then adverted to the secrecy which the Chancellor of the Exchequer
had observed relative to his own opinion on this important subject. Why
did he refuse to give it? Had Mr. Wilberforce been present, the house
would have had a great advantage in this respect, because doubtless he
would have stated in what view he saw the subject, and in a general way
described the nature of the project he meant to propose. But now they
were kept in the dark as to the nature of any plan, till the next
session. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had indeed said, that it had
been a very general opinion that the African Slave Trade should be
abolished. He had said again, that others had not gone so far, but had
given it as their opinion, that it required to be revised and regulated.
But why did he not give his own sentiments boldly to the world on this
great question? As for himself, he (Mr. Fox) had no scruple to declare
at the outset, that the Slave Trade ought not to be regulated, but
destroyed. To this opinion his mind was made up; and he was persuaded
that, the more the subject was considered, the more his opinion would
gain ground; and it would be admitted, that to consider it in any other
manner, or on any other principles than those of humanity and justice,
would be idle and absurd. If there were any such men, and he did not
know but that there were those, who, led away by local and interested
considerations, thought the Slave Trade might still continue under
certain modifications, these were the dupes of error, and mistook what
they thought their interest, for what he would undertake to convince
them was their loss. Let such men only hear the case further, and they
would find the result to be, that a cold-hearted policy was folly when
it opposed the great principles of humanity and justice.
He concluded by saying that he would not oppose the resolution, if other
members thought it best to postpone the consideration of the subject;
but he should have been better pleased if it had been discussed sooner;
and he certainly reserved to himself the right of voting for any
question upon it that should be brought forward by any other member in
the course of the present session.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, that nothing he had heard had
satisfied him of the propriety of departing from the rule he had laid
down for himself, of not offering, but of studiously avoiding to offer,
any opinion upon the subject till the time should arrive when it could
be fully argued. He thought that no discussion which could take place
that session, could lead to any useful measure, and therefore, he had
wished not to argue it till the whole of it could be argued. A day would
come, when every member would have an opportunity of stating his
opinion; and he wished it might be discussed with a proper spirit on all
sides, on fair and liberal principles, and without any shackles from
local and interested considerations.
With regard to the inquiries instituted before the committee of privy
council, he was sure, as soon as it became obvious that the subject must
undergo a discussion, it was the duty of His Majesty's Ministers to set
those inquiries on foot, which should best enable them to judge in what
manner they could meet or offer any proposition respecting the Slave
Trade. And although such previous examinations by no means went to
deprive that house of its undoubted right to institute those inquiries;
or to preclude them, they would be found greatly to facilitate them.
But, exclusive of this consideration, it would have been utterly
impossible to have come to any discussion of the subject, that could
have been brought to a conclusion in the course of the present session.
Did the inquiry then before the privy council prove a loss of time? So
far from it, that, upon the whole, time had been gained by it. He had
moved the resolution, therefore, to pledge the house to bring on the
discussion early in the next session, when they would have a full
opportunity of considering every part of the subject: first, whether the
whole of the trade ought to be abolished; and, if so, how and when. If
it should be thought that the trade should only be put under certain
regulations, what those regulations ought to be, and when they should
take place. These were questions which must be considered; and therefore
he had made his resolution as wide as possible, that there might be room
for all necessary considerations to be taken in. He repeated his
declaration, that he would reserve his sentiments till the day of
discussion should arrive; and again declared, that he earnestly wished
to avoid an anticipation of the debate upon the subject. But if such
debate was likely to take place, he would withdraw his motion, and offer
it another day.
A few words then passed between Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox in reply to each
other; after which Lord Penrhyn rose. He said there were two classes of
men, the African merchants, and the planters, both of whose characters
had been grossly calumniated. These wished that an inquiry might be
instituted, and this immediately, conscious that the more their conduct
was examined the less they would be found to merit the opprobrium with
which they had been loaded. The charges against the Slave Trade were
either true or false. If they were true, it ought to be abolished; but
if upon inquiry they were found to be without foundation, justice ought
to be done to the reputation of those who were concerned in it. He then
said a few words, by which he signified, that, after all, it might not
be an improper measure to make regulations in the trade.
Mr. Burke said, the noble lord, who was a man of honour himself, had
reasoned from his own conduct, and, being conscious of his own
integrity, was naturally led to imagine that other men were equally just
and honourable. Undoubtedly the merchants and planters had a right to
call for an investigation of their conduct, and their doing so did them
great credit. The Slave Trade also ought equally to be inquired into.
Neither did he deny that it was right his Majesty's ministers should
inquire into its merits for themselves. They had done their duty; but
that House, who had the petitions of the people on their table,
neglected it, by having so long deferred an inquiry of their own. If
that House wished to preserve their functions, their understandings,
their honour, and their dignity, he advised them to beware of committees
of privy council. If they suffered their business to be done by such
means, they were abdicating their trust and character, and making way
for an entire abolition of their functions, which they were parting with
one after another, Thus:--
Star after star goes out, and all is night.
If they neglected the petitions of their constituents, they must fall,
and the privy-counsel be instituted in their stead. What would be the
consequence? His Majesty's Ministers, instead of consulting them, and
giving them the opportunity of exercising their functions of
deliberation and legislation, would modify the measures of government
elsewhere, and bring down the edicts of the privy council to them to
register. Mr. Burke said, he was one of those who wished for the
abolition of the Slave Trade. He thought it ought to be abolished, on
principles of humanity and justice. If, however, opposition of interests
should render its total abolition impossible, it ought to be regulated,
and that immediately. They need not send to the West Indies to know the
opinions of the planters on the subject. They were to consider first of
all, and abstractedly from all political, personal, and local
considerations, that the Slave Trade was directly contrary to the
principles of humanity and justice, and to the spirit of the British
constitution; and that the state of slavery, which followed it, however
mitigated, was a state so improper, so degrading, and so ruinous to the
feelings and capacities of human nature, that it ought not to be
suffered to exist. He deprecated delay in this business, as well for the
sake of planters as of the slaves.
Mr. Gascoyne, the other member for Liverpool, said he had no objection
that the discussion should stand over to the next session of parliament,
provided it could not come on in the present, because he was persuaded
it would ultimately be found that his constituents, who were more
immediately concerned in the trade, and who had been so shamefully
calumniated, were men of respectable character. He hoped the privy
council would print their Report when they had brought their inquiries
to a conclusion, and that they would lay it before the House and the
public, in order to enable all concerned to form a judgment of what was
proper to be done relative to the subject next session. With respect,
however, to the total abolition of the Slave Trade, he must confess that
such a measure was both unnecessary, visionary, and impracticable; but
he wished some alterations or modifications to be adopted. He hoped
that, when the House came to go into the general question, they would
not forget the trade, commerce, and navigation of the country.
Mr. Rolle said, he had received instruction from his constituents to
inquire if the grievances, which had been alleged to result from the
Slave Trade, were well founded; and, if it appear that they were, to
assist in applying a remedy. He was glad the discussion had been put off
till next session, as it would give all of them an opportunity of
considering the subject with more mature deliberation.
Mr. Martin desired to say a few words only. He put the case, that,
supposing the slaves were treated ever so humanely, when they were
carried to the West Indies, what compensation could be made them for
being torn from their nearest relations, and from everything that was
dear to them in life? He hoped no political advantage, no national
expediency, would be allowed to weigh in the scale against the eternal
rules of moral rectitude. As for himself, he had no hesitation to
declare, in this early stage of the business, that he should think
himself a wicked wretch if he did not do everything in his power to put
a stop to the Slave Trade.
Sir William Dolben said, that he did not then wish to enter into the
discussion of the general question of the abolition of the Slave Trade,
which the Chancellor of the Exchequer was so desirous of postponing; but
he wished to say a few words on what he conceived to be a most crying
evil, and which might be immediately remedied, without infringing upon
the limits of that question. He did not allude to the sufferings of the
poor Africans in their own country, nor afterwards in the West India
islands, but to that intermediate state of tenfold misery which they
underwent in their transportation. When put on board the ships, the poor
unhappy wretches were chained to each other, hand and foot, and stowed
so close, that they were not allowed above a foot and a half for each
individual in breadth. Thus crammed together like herrings in a barrel,
they contracted putrid and fatal disorders; so that they who came to
inspect them in a morning had occasionally to pick dead slaves out of
their rows, and to unchain their carcasses from the bodies of their
wretched fellow-sufferers, to whom they had been fastened. Nor was it
merely to the slaves that the baneful effects of the contagion thus
created were confined. This contagion affected the ships' crews, and
numbers of the seamen employed in the horrid traffic perished. This
evil, he said, called aloud for a remedy, and that remedy ought to be
applied soon; otherwise no less than ten thousand lives might be lost
between this and next session. He wished therefore this grievance to be
taken into consideration, independently of the general question; and
that some regulations, such as restraining the captains from taking
above a certain number of slaves on board, according to the size of
their vessels, and obliging them to let in fresh air, and provide better
accommodation for the slaves during their passage, should be adopted.
Mr. Young wished the consideration of the whole subject to stand over to
the next session.
Sir James Johnstone, though a planter, professed himself a friend to the
abolition of the Slave Trade. He said it was highly necessary that the
House should do something respecting it; but whatever was to be done
should be done soon, as delay might be productive of bad consequences in
the islands.
Mr. L. Smith stood up a zealous advocate for the abolition of the Slave
Trade. He said that even Lord Penrhyn and Mr. Gascoyne, the members for
Liverpool, had admitted the evil of it to a certain extent; for
regulations or modifications, in which they seemed to acquiesce, were
unnecessary where abuses did not really exist.
Mr. Grigby thought it his duty to declare, that no privy council report,
or other mode of examination, could influence him. A traffic in the
persons of men was so odious, that it ought everywhere, as soon as ever
it was discovered, to be abolished.
Mr. Bastard was anxious that the House should proceed to the discussion
of the subject in the present session. The whole country, he said, had
petitioned; and was it any satisfaction to the country to be told, that
the committee of privy council were inquiring? Who knew anything of what
was doing by the committee of privy council, or what progress they were
making? The inquiry ought to have been instituted in that House, and in
the face of the public, that everybody concerned might know what was
going on. The numerous petitions of the people ought immediately to be
attended to. He reprobated delay on this occasion; and as the honourable
baronet, Sir William Dolben, had stated facts which were shocking to
humanity, he hoped he would move that a committee might be appointed to
inquire into their existence, that a remedy might be applied, if
possible, before the sailing of the next ships for Africa.
Mr. Whitbread professed himself a strenuous advocate for the total and
immediate abolition of the Slave Trade. It was contrary to nature, and
to every principle of justice, humanity, and religion.
Mr. Pelham stated, that he had very maturely considered the subject of
the Slave Trade; and had he not known that the business was in the hands
of an honourable member, (whose absence from the house, and the cause of
it, no man lamented more sincerely than he did,) he should have ventured
to propose something concerning it himself. If it should be thought that
the trade ought not to be entirely done away, the sooner it was
regulated the better. He had a plan for this purpose, which appeared to
him to be likely to produce some salutary effects. He wished to know if
any such thing would be permitted to be proposed in the course of the
present session.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer said he should be happy, if he thought
the circumstances of the house were such as to enable them to proceed to
an immediate discussion of the question; but as that did not appear,
from the reasons he had before stated, to be the case, he could only
assure the honourable gentleman, that the same motives which had induced
him to propose an inquiry into the subject early in the next session of
parliament, would make him desirous of receiving any other light which
could be thrown upon it.
The question having been then put, the resolution was agreed to
unanimously. Thus ended the first debate that ever took place in the
Commons, on this important subject. This debate, though many of the
persons concerned in it abstained cautiously from entering into the
merits of the general question, became interesting, in consequence of
circumstances attending it. Several rose up at once to give relief, as
it were, to their feelings by utterance; but by so doing they were
prevented, many of them, from being heard. They who were heard, spoke
with peculiar energy, as if warmed in an extraordinary manner by the
subject. There was an apparent enthusiasm in behalf of the injured
Africans. It was supposed by some, that there was a moment, in which, if
the Chancellor of the Exchequer had moved for an immediate abolition of
the trade, he would have carried it that night; and both he and others,
who professed an attachment to the cause, were censured for not having
taken a due advantage of the disposition which was so apparent. But
independently of the inconsistency of doing this on the part of the
ministry, while the privy council were in the midst of their inquiries,
and of the improbability that the other branches of the legislature
would have concurred in so hasty a measure; what good would have accrued
to the cause, if the abolition had been then carried? Those concerned in
the cruel system would never have rested quietly under the stigma under
which they then laboured. They would have urged, that they had been
condemned unheard. The merchants would have said, that they had had no
notice of such an event, that they might prepare, a way for their
vessels in other trades. The planters would have said, that they had had
no time allowed them to provide such supplies from Africa as might
enable them to keep up their respective stocks. They would, both of
them, have called aloud for immediate indemnification. They would have
decried the policy of the measure of the abolition; and where had it
been proved? They would have demanded a reverse of it; and might they
not in cooler moments have succeeded? Whereas, by entering into a
patient discussion of the merits of the question; by bringing evidence
upon it; by reasoning upon that evidence night after night, and year
after year, and thus by disputing the ground inch as it were by inch,
the abolition of the Slave Trade stands upon a rock, upon which it never
can be shaken. Many of those who were concerned in the cruel system have
now given up their prejudices, because they became convinced in the
contest. A stigma too has been fixed upon it, which can never be erased:
and in a large record, in which the cruelty and injustice of it have
been recognised in indelible characters, its impolicy also has been
eternally enrolled.
CHAPTER XXIII.
[Sidenote: Continuation to the middle of July.--Anxiety of Sir William
Dolben to lessen the horrors of the Middle Passage till the great
question should be discussed; brings in a bill for that purpose; debate
upon it.--Evidence examined against it; its inconsistency and
falsehoods.--Further debate upon it.--Bill passed, and carried to the
Lords; vexatious delays and opposition there; carried backwards and
forwards to both houses.--At length finally passed.--Proceedings of the
committee in the interim; effects of them.]
It was supposed, after the debate, of which the substance has been just
given, that there would have been no further discussion of the subject
till the next year; but Sir William Dolben became more and more affected
by those considerations which he had offered to the house on the ninth
of May. The trade, he found, was still to go on. The horrors of the
transportation, or Middle Passage, as it was called, which he conceived
to be the worst in the long catalogue of evils belonging to the system,
would of course accompany it. The partial discussion of these, he
believed, would be no infringement of the late resolution of the house.
He was desirous, therefore, of doing something in the course of the
present session, by which the miseries of the trade might be diminished
as much as possible, while it lasted, or till the legislature could take
up the whole of the question. This desire he mentioned to several of his
friends; and as these approved of his design, he made it known on the
twenty-first of May in the House of Commons.
He began by observing, that he would take up but little of their time.
He rose to move for leave to bring in a bill for the relief of those
unhappy persons, the natives of Africa, from the hardships to which they
were usually exposed in their passage from the coast of Africa to the
colonies. He did not mean, by any regulations he might introduce for
this purpose, to countenance or sanction the Slave Trade, which, however
modified, would be always wicked and unjustifiable. Nor did he mean, by
introducing these, to go into the general question which the house had
prohibited. The bill which he had in contemplation, went only to limit
the number of persons to be put on board to the tonnage of the vessel
which was to carry them, in order to prevent them from being crowded too
closely together; to secure to them good and sufficient provisions; and
to take cognizance of other matters, which related to their health and
accommodation; and this only till parliament could enter into the
general merits of the question. This humane interference he thought no
member would object to. Indeed, those for Liverpool had both of them
admitted, on the ninth of May, that regulations were desirable; and he
had since conversed with them, and was happy to learn that they would
not oppose him on this occasion.
Mr. Whitbread highly approved of the object of the worthy baronet, which
was to diminish the sufferings of an unoffending people. Whatever could
be done to relieve them in their hard situation, till parliament could
take up the whole of their case, ought to be done by men living in a
civilized country, and professing the Christian religion: he therefore
begged leave to second the motion which had been made.
General Norton was sorry that he had not risen up sooner. He wished to
have seconded this humane motion himself. It had his most cordial
approbation.