is likely to produce when connected with the situation of the country, and the opinion which the Bank have expressed of its consequences; but in the view of peace it is of the first importance to labour for the restoration of public credit. The French look more to the state of the Bank of England and to public credit than to the event of a battle: and whatever tends to protract or to endanger the cure, will raise their hopes, and increase their pretensions.-I do not wish to recur to the commencement of the war; but it must be remembered, that the evil of war was admitted; but it was deemed a less evil than the remote evils we had to dread from the Scheldt, Holland, and Savoy, continuing in the power of the French. Four years have we suffered the immediate evils of war in a degree unparalleled, and now we are farther than ever from the security against the remote dangers which were dreaded. Take care, then, lest you expose yourselves to all the evils of the remedy, without being able to effect a cure. But it is said, would you throw away one of your weapons when you may still be obliged to continue the contest? Yes, I would answer, throw away one weapon, if you will then be able to wield the remainder for a longer period. would rather contend with less now, to be able to contend more effectually afterwards. If the war is not terminated by the present campaign, and if thirty or forty millions are required for the public. o keep. The right hon. gentleman cauons the House, that the minutes which my hon. friend quoted were drawn up by the directors of the Bank, without having been submitted to his inspection. Had the right hon. gentleman been impeached at the bar of the other House, he might, no doubt, have availed himself of this legal objection to their evidence. But can it be supposed that the directors were men of such dull understandings that they were unable to comprehend the answer of the right hon. gentleman to their representations? Was it that the right hon. gentleman had so little command of the English language that he could not explain himself so as to be understood? Whether is public credit and confidence, then, most likely to be regained by the measure which the right hon. gentleman proposes, or that which we recommend? The right hon. gentleman says, that commerce would suffer by the alarm of invasion, because it would withdraw from labour those who are now usefully employed. This evil, however, had already been incurred by the measures which have been adopted for the defence of the country. The stoppage of the Bank was not the effect of the alarm of invasion, but the run upon it was occasioned by a want of confidence in the pecuniary security of the country. Every part of government service, the army, the navy, was in arrear, and the embarrassments struck an alarm into the people. If any thing can produce a doubt of the solidity of the Bank, or pre-service, I would ask the right hon. gentlevent the restoration of its credit, it will be the obstinate perseverance of ministers in the system which has already been attended with such fatal consequences, and the negligence of the House in continuing patiently to acquiesce, and blindly to confide. Such a perseverance I should dread more than any attempt of invasion, or even a landing effected by the enemy. I cannot, upon the present occasion, admit it to be a narrow view of the subject to consider the restoration of credit as the grand point to which our exertions ought to be directed, almost to the exclusion of every other. The situation of this country is different from that of France. The credit of France was but a small part of its general resource; but here it is the life and soul of our power and prosperity. It is not so muc. the quantum of the advance, or the saving in point of economy that is to be considered, but it is the effect which sending any sums of money abroad I man, whether the difficulty of borrowing would not be more severely felt, and the impotence of the country affect its interests more deeply? I would have the efforts of the country less now, that they may be more lasting. That we should fall unarmed before the enemy, is far more likely to ensue from unlimited prodigality, than from a cautious husbanding of our strength and resources. I know that general principles are against that contracted scale which I recommend; but there are occasions when general principles are not applicable, and when to deviate from them is to act with true wisdom and sound policy. The right hon. gentleman talks of peace; but does he take any means for its attainment? Will he, or can he take those steps by which that blessing may be restored? The country is convinced that he neither can nor will; and, so far from expecting the restoration of credit from the blessings of peace, we must think of supporting credit in such a manner as to be able to go on for the period to which the war may be protracted. It is now a war of finance, and every year we must be in a worse condition. In the course of the last year stocks have fallen 27 per cent; and it is to be feared that they will continue to fall. It is not to the stoppage of the Bank, nor to the alarm of invasion, but to the general state of our credit and resources that this is to be ascribed. If this year a loan can with difficulty be negotiated with the stocks at 49, how must the difficulty be increased, if it is found necessary to have another next year? If I cannot succeed with the right hon. gentleman in putting a stop to the career he is running, let me implore the House to interpose between the madness of the minister and the ruin of the government. lay before the House a precise statement of the nature of the motion which I am aboutto make, perhaps the fairest mode of proceed ing may be to state, in the first instance, what it is not. I am in fairness bound to state that this measure proceeds upon princi ples diametrically opposite to those of the Abolition bill. I have always felt it my duty to oppose that bill: and I conceive it to be so radically faulty, that I could not, under any modification in the present situation of the colonies, accede to such a measure. I reprobate the principle of the trade, and sincerely wish for its com plete termination. At the same time, where the subject is so complicated, and its decision involves such a variety of important interests, I cannot feel myself justified in confining my consideration of it to the principle alone. If the question were changed to a deliberation, whether a system should or should not now be estab lished, which must depend for its future existence on a trade in slaves, the discussion might then be confined to the merits of such a trade: and, arguing simply on that principle, it would be impossible for any man of common humanity to hesitate in foregoing whatever advantages might be expected from a system so founded. But where the evil is of long previous existence, where it is connected with a political and commercial system, in which the general interests of the country, and the property of individuals, are deeply involv Sir W. Pulteney was for making farther advances to the Emperor, but he thought the restoration of credit the first object. He said, that a small sum would do a great deal with the Emperor, because there was none of that lavish expenditure abroad, which prevailed here. The Emperor could not go on without assistance, because he had no means of borrowing. The Emperor's expenses for two years of the war had only exceeded his revenue by one million. The schemes of the chancellor of the exchequer, had,produced no effect in lowering the discounts on government paper. He blamed his want of eco-ed-whatever feelings may be excited by nomy, but was against laying aside any weapon which could enable us to prosecute the war. the consideration of the principle of the trade alone, they must be checked by a sense of our duty towards individuals whose claims, we cannot, in justice, refuse to take into consideration. I feel that we are bound to weigh well, whether, consistently with that duty, we can pursue the direct and obvious road to the attainment of our object. In my own particular instance, having, as I conceive, good grounds for a convic tion, that the plan proposed by the advo cates for the Abolition bill cannot but be productive of severe injury to all persons in any way connected with the colonies; and believing, that so much individual calamity cannot be independent of the gene ral interests of the country, I have turned my views to a very different plan for the attainment of this object. On this point gentlemen may possibly suppose that I am not likely to be impartial; that the natural sensibility to personal interest may preclude from a pretension to correctness of judgment. To this I must answer, that even if there be ground for such a distrust, the prejudice which has warped my judgment has had equal influence on that of the whole body of the West Indians; if ours be a prejudice, being so general, it is at least worth an investigation. The pe tives for preferring a toleration of the trade under strict regulations, and the superintendance of this country, trusting for its termination to a system of civilization in the West India islands. culiarity of those climates afford facilities to a contraband trade, in a degree of which gentlemen may not be aware. I could, on this point, only repeat with less clearness, and still less weight, the arguments stated to the late House of Commons by a right hon. gentleman (Mr. Dundas) who, in addition to the very extensive information which appeared evident in a most able speech, was possessed of peculiar means of estimating the difficulties, which, from the nature of those countries, must stand in the way of the most vigilant exertions. Wherever there exists a strong interest, operating as a temptation to the evasion of a prohibitory law, the difficulty of enforcing it must be great. In the present case, the temptation held out by interest, is stronger even than that afforded by the facility. It is the temptation of an interest, in which the very existence of the colonies is, by the colonists, considered to be involved. If, indeed, it were possible, that immediately on the passing of an act of abolition, those persons who would probably feel, that in the course of the discussions on this subject, their characters had not been treated with peculiar lenity, perhaps hardly with candour, should immediately acknowledge the justice of all the calumnies which had been heaped upon them and agree to use their best exertions to preclude each other from employing what they thought the only means of saving their properties from ruin, then, indeed, an act of abolition might be perfectly efficient. If, on the contrary, that measure must rest for its efficiency solely on strong penal laws, I much doubt whether any would be found adequate to the accomplishment of the object. The means seem calculated to defeat that end. It is the effect of excessively severe penalties, to make those who are charged to inflict them remiss in their execution of the law; and I am persuaded, that whatever menaces may have been used in the heat of debate by gentlemen, who have thought they saw in this argument such a doubt of the power of parliament as ought only to be repelled by such an answer, I am persuaded they would, in their cooler moments, be unwilling to put their threats in execution. When, therefore, I state these doubts as But, endeavouring to put out of the question my feelings in that character, dismissing, for the present, all reference to the effects of an Abolition bill in the West-India islands, and considering it merely as a member of this House, I cannot avoid, in another point of view, observing a very strong additional objection. This objection is, that I do not believe it would be found competent to the effect expected. I do not believe it would annihilate the slave trade. Here I must beg to be understood, that I do not mean to call in question either the wisdom of this House in the mode of framing such an act, or its ability to enforce it. There can be no doubt, that from the moment such an act shall have passed, the trade, as it is now carried on, must cease. The evil which I dread is, that the trade suddenly so stopped, would be diverted into an unlawful channel. I do not presume to give my own opinion as authority, that such would be the consequence of that measure. I am proud to have an opportunity of resting it upon the sanction of a right hon. gentleman, formerly a member of this House, whose sentiments are not unfrequently quoted on each side of the House with a veneration that seems to stamp them as a classical authority: a veneration which I myself feel, for many reasons in a peculiar degree. Many years ago, previous to a time when the hon. framer of the Abolition bill first agitated this question, that gentleman (Mr. Burke) applied his great abilities and extensive knowledge to the formation of a plan, for the regulation of the trade on the coast of Africa, and the civilization of the negroes in the West India islands.* He was not insensible of the danger of establishing an illicit trade, which, without furnishing an adequate or efficient supply of labourers to the colonies, would necessarily, from the mode of carrying it on, be productive of aggravated misery to the Africans. The probability that such would be the consequence of an abolition, and the fatal effects of such an alternative, appear to be among not the least weighty of his mo *See Burke's Works, Vol. 9, p. 285. to the power of enforcing a prohibition of the slave trade, I must beg not to be understood to call in question the power which this country might in its wrath exert for the punishment of a disobedient and refractory colony; when I question the means of this country, I do not calculate them according to its physical force, but in reference to the usual mildness of this House, and the dispassionate justice of its decisions. and benevolence, that it is impossible to re 1 If I have entered into the discussion of the merits of the Abolition bill farther than has been expected, I have done so, because I consider the statement of objections with which I have troubled the House, to be a necessary preface to the measure which I mean to submit to their consideration. My object is, to propose to the House a plan calculated to produce I now come to the other object, that of the same effect by different means. Hi- the civilization of the negroes in the cotherto gentlemen may possibly have con- lonies. It has been found upon past exsidered themselves in the unfortunate di-perience, that the population of negro lemma of either agreeing to the bill proposed for the abolition of the slave trade, notwithstanding any objections to which it might appear liable, or of refusing to take any steps at all, for the purpose of remedying the evil. The present alternative offered to those gentlemen who wish for a reform, is this: Whether they will completely disregard the representations and objections urged against the Abolition bill, and adopt that measure or; whether they will give a trial to the plan, which proposes to itself the same end; which, in its progress, will not be incompatible with the interest and property of individuals, will not create temptations, operating to defeat its object, and cannot, for its complete execution, require such exertions of severity as I should in any case deprecate, and such as I cannot suppose any gentleman to approve, but in a case of unavoidable necessity. I presume it will be admitted, that this necessity cannot exist, unless it be supposed impossible to carry into effect either of the following objects: -The one is, the civilization of the negroes on the coast of Africa, which would preclude the possibility of a supply. The other is, the civilization of the negroes in the West India islands, to a degree, which, by obviating the causes of a decrease in the population will render the supply unnecessary. From the civilization in the negroes in Africa, we might look forward to such salutary effects; but then it could only be at a very distant period. In the mean time, the plan has in it so much slaves has, in every one of the West India islands, invariably decreased. If a re medy can be found to this evil, the ter mination of the slave trade must inevi tably follow. But the colonists insist, that it is upon this point that we have hitherto been at issue; that till such a remedy can be found, the existence of the colonies must depend upon the continuance of that trade.-In the course of the agitation of this question, it has been argued on all sides, that the failure in the population has proceeded from the following causes: From the system of manners and morality of the negroes: from diseases, some of them consequent on that system of manners; some peculiar to Africans; and from the disproportion of the sexes. I presume it is unnecessary to insist, that, for the purpose of establishing a general reformation, some general system must be formed and carefully enforced. That, without very minute information concerning the manners and character of the negroes, and the nature of the country, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to draw up any plan, which shall be free from great defects; that it is only from the result of experiment, that safe and practicable remedies are to be expected; and that, In the execution of a plan, however formed, and with whatever merits, a careful superintendance is no less necessary to its success. I mean it is necessary that those persons, to whom the superintendance is entrusted, should possess, not merely a zeal for the success of the cause, but the ners can only be expected from mild and gradual means; but from the impression of a moral duty, and the more immediate inducement of interest, it may with reason be expected. immediate power of seeing the effects of the plan; of judging, whether in any points it may fail of the effect expected from it, and whether in any others, it may clash either with important interests, or with justice. I believe, therefore, I do not say too much, when I assert, that the colonial legislatures of the different islands are the only persons fit for the formation and execution of such a plan. It has been asserted, that by a strict attention to the moral instruction of the young negroes, the licentious system of manners may be corrected. I myself concur in this opinion, and do believe that When I say that I consider a reform the next generation might, by such means, in the manners and morality of the ne- be brought to consider marriage as a regroes to be necessary, I must explain, ligious contract. But what measures the that I do not mean to state them to be a colonial legislature may think best calcuvicious race on the contrary, they are lated to produce this effect, I cannot prein their dispositions, good and tractable; sume, specifically, to point out. Perhaps highly sensible to kind treatment, and a plan on the same system as the Sunday capable of very extraordinary attachment. schools, so happily established in this The point in their morality to which I al- country, might, in the West Indies, be lude, does not proceed from any defect in likewise attended with good effects. For their natural dispositions; it is the effect the purpose of securing the means of inof the manners, the prejudices, and the struction, encouragement might be afreligion of the Africans. Their religion forded to proper persons of the clergy to is either a corrupt Deism or Mahomet- establish themselves, and superintend anism, and natural passion has received schools in the colonies. In using the word the sanction of this religion, in establish- instruction, I beg to be understood, that ing a system of polygamy. That system, I do not mean that it ought to extend farin its best state, is supposed not to be ther than it does among the common peofavourable to population; in the West ple in this country: indeed, until the neIndies, it has been found to be peculiarly groes can be attached to the soil, it ought fatal to it; it has there been followed by not, from motives of humanity towards as little strictness in the morality of the them, to be carried farther than the mere one sex, as it inculcates in that of the inculcating of moral duties: perhaps, other. The House will not think it neces- while they continue liable to be sold sary for me to dwell on the effects which from one plantation to another, any desuch a system of manners must produce. gree of farther civilization may be only I will only observe, that in such a system, a circumstance of aggravation. I am also the connexions, to which the negroes convinced, that an additional, though less give the name of marriage, have not a immediate, advantage might be expected very correct right to such a title, and canfrom the zeal of a well-chosen and more not but be unfavourable to the general numerous clergy, by means of the effect mass of population. In consequence of which they would produce on the morals the right which every negro claims, of and manners of the lower class of white living with as many wives as he can main- inhabitants, who, from their employments tain, the offspring will often want that on our plantations, have the most immetender care and attention which, in a sys-diate connexion with the negroes, and tem of equal marriages, instinct secures to whose example must have considerable it from both parents.--But this is only one, influence. Indeed, much of the improveof many aggravated and multiplied evils, ment which has hitherto taken place in which arise from the same liberty, when the situation of our negroes, may be atexercised, as is very generally the case tributed to that which has taken place in in our islands, indiscriminately, by either the manners of this class of persons, sex. The remedy to this evil cannot whom we have received from the mother be looked for from compulsion: abso- country. The wishes of the colonists to lute as the power of the master has been attend to that important point, the moral supposed to be, it cannot be carried to instruction of the negroes, have hitherto this extent; the exertion of authority, in met with a considerable obstacle, from the direct contradiction to their general pre- difficulty of finding a sufficient number judices and their passions, would be of persons properly qualified for so imstrongly resisted. A reform in their man- portant and confidential a trust. 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